In late 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its initial Schrems decision, invalidating the EU/US Safe Harbor and leading to important developments in the rules for transferring personal data from the EU to the US. Since that decision, Mr. Schrems has pursued two further legal proceedings in the EU.
The first involves Mr. Schrems’ challenge in the Irish courts to EU Standard Contractual Clauses, which permit data to be transferred internationally between contract parties. In the trial, Alston & Bird Special Counsel Peter Swire testified as an expert on US national [...] Read more
About this time last January, the European Parliament released its proposal for a new ePrivacy Regulation. The intent of the ePrivacy Regulation is to replace the current ePrivacy regime – which consists of an ePrivacy Directive and a patchwork of local implementing legislation – with a uniform set of directly-applicable EU-wide rules. Since the Parliament released its ePrivacy Regulation draft, both the European Council and the European Parliament have reviewed it and released their own revised drafts.
The ePrivacy Regulation contains a number of important rules for companies. Traditionally, [...] Read more
On November 16, 2017 the Belgian Senate adopted an “Act on the Establishment of the Data Protection Authority” (the “Act”). Following Austria, Germany, and the UK, Belgium is the fourth EU Member State to pass a domestic statute implementing the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”) prior to its effective date of 25 May 2018. The new Belgian Act sets forth the structure and legal organization of the Data Protection Authority (“DPA”), which will serve as the successor of the current Belgian Privacy Commission. More importantly, the Act significantly broadens the DPA’s [...] Read more
The Article 29 Working Party group (WP29) of European data protection authorities recently announced that they will legally challenge the adequacy of the Privacy Shield Framework unless the U.S. government addresses certain “prioritized concerns” by May 25, 2018. Privacy Shield provides a framework which helps over 2500+ participating U.S. companies legally transfer EU personal data to the United States.
The WP29 announcement follows a report and press release from the European Commission in October which stated that “the Privacy shield continues to ensure an adequate level of protection.” [...] Read more
Over the past year, the German government has been working on legislation to implement the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). On July 6, 2017, Germany did so by passing a statute titled the Data Protection Amendments and Implementation Act. The Act repeals Germany’s venerated Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz, or BDSG) and replaces it with an entirely new BDSG, aptly referred to as the “BDSG-New.” Germany becomes the first EU Member State to pass a GDPR implementation statute. Given Germany’s reputation as one of, if not the, most serious privacy jurisdiction [...] Read more
David Keating, partner and co-leader of the firm’s Privacy & Data Security practice, Jan Dhont, Brussels partner and head of the firm’s European Privacy and Data Protection practice, and Karen Sanzaro, counsel in the Technology & Privacy Group, will be speakers at the 2017 Privacy + Security Forum in Washington, DC, taking place on October 4-6, 2017.
David Keating will be speaking during the session on “Emerging Consumer Tracking and Analytics Technologies.” This session will explore recent regulatory and enforcement developments in this area and discuss practical approaches [...] Read more
In June, the Federal Trade Commission released a new guide for businesses on implementing sound data security protections and procedures. In “Protecting Personal Information: A Guide For Business,” the FTC offers “10 practical lessons” based on the numerous enforcement actions brought by the FTC. The guide offers insight into the thinking of this key federal regulator.
Key points from the guide:
“Start with Security.” Build information security considerations into business processes so that they are part of “the decisionmaking in every department of your business.” The FTC [...] Read more
On May 23, 2017, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion on Wikimedia foundation v. NSA/CSS. The Court vacated and remanded the NSA’s previously successful motion to dismiss Wikimedia’s Fourth and First Amendment claims against the NSA’s Upstream surveillance program, while a 2-1 majority upheld the dismissal of the eight other organizations joined as co-plaintiffs. The Court held that Wikimedia’s complaint contained sufficient factual allegations to determine Article III standing and that the District Court misapplied Clapper v. Amnesty International USA’s analysis of [...] Read more
Japan’s Act on Protection of Personal Information currently in force (“Current APPI”) dates back to 2003. It was originally enacted on May 30, 2003, and came into effect in 2005. Ten years later, the National Diet passed extensive reforms to modernize the Current APPI in September, 2015. Although the Amended Act on Protection of Personal Information (“Amended APPI”) has been partly in effect, it will come fully into effect on May 30, 2017.
It is important to note that the Amended APPI applies to “personal information handling business operators” which is defined as a person [...] Read more
The FTC and the State of New Jersey recently announced a settlement with Vizio, Inc., in the amount of $2.2 million for tracking consumer behavior using its smart television devices.
The complaint alleged that Vizio acted unfairly by collecting, storing (indefinitely) and sharing consumer data with third parties without consent and in an unexpected manner. Further, the complaint alleged that Vizio had misrepresented the functionality of the feature in their smart televisions that collected such data (also known as “Smart Interactivity”). It was also alleged that these practices were an unconscionable [...] Read more
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