The UK Department for Culture, Media & Sport is planning to present a new Data Protection Bill to the Parliament in early September. This new Bill will replace the current UK Data Protection Act 1998 and will effectively incorporate the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) in the UK legal system. The new Data Protection […]
Legislation
Facebook Fined for WhatsApp Data Linking Fallout
On 18 May 2017, the European Commission (“Commission”) fined Facebook €110 million ($122 million) for misrepresentations made in its application for competition clearance of the company’s acquisition of WhatsApp. In its merger application, Facebook claimed that it would be unable to automatically match Facebook users’ accounts and WhatsApp users’ accounts for marketing and other purposes. […]
Working Party welcomes the draft ePrivacy Regulation, yet expresses grave concerns
The Working Party recently issued its first Opinion for 2017, focusing on the EU Commission’s proposed ePrivacy Regulation (WP 247, Opinion 01/2017). The Commission’s proposal, which was published in January this year, aims to modernize the existing ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC as amended by 2009/136/EC) which concerns the protection of personal data in the context of […]
New Mexico Data Breach Legislation Passes
New Mexico recently became the 48th state to pass some form of data breach notification legislation, leaving Alabama and South Dakota as the lone holdouts. The Data Breach Notification Act was signed by New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez on April 6, 2017. The law applies to persons that own or license personal identifying information of […]
Germany Proposes Bill Requiring Social Network Takedowns – with € 50 Million Fines
Recent media reports indicated that Germany was considering legislation that would fine social networks for failing to combat fake news and hate speech. Today, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas introduced a “Draft Law to Improve Law Enforcement in Social Networks” (abbreviated as the Network Enforcement Act (Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz), or “NetzDG”). The NetzDG aims to curb “hate-based […]