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On December 17, 2015, the European Parliament (LIBE, Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee) approved the data protection reform. Next year the European Parliament and Council will vote (see here). More information is available at http://www.emeeting.europarl…. or more information, Francesca Giannoni-Crystal Follow us on& Like us on    

  For the first time, EU institutions agreed that companies providing essential services must be cyberattack-proof. Critical operators in crucial sectors such as transport and energy companies will have to ensure that the digital infrastructure that they use to deliver essential services, such as traffic control or electricity grid management, is robust enough to withstand […]

Privacy Laws & Business reports (here) that Věra Jourová, the European Commissioner for Justice, expects teh EU institutions to arrive at an agreement on the EU Data Protection Regulation in the next two weeks, before the end of 2015.  More on the EU trilogue negotiation is available at http://www.technethics.com… For more information, Francesca Giannoni-Crystal Follow […]

What is this all about? The EU is in the process of reforming its existing data protection rules. These reforms have been moving slowly through the EU legislative pipeline but we seem now to be getting closer to a final agreement. Even though the expected implementation date of these rules is still likely to be […]

On November 4, 2015, the House of Commons introduced a draft titled “Investigatory Powers Bill”. The Bill would govern the use of investigatory powers by law enforcement and security and intelligence agencies to access UK citizens’ internet data use. Among other provisions, the Bill would oblige service providers to help intercept data if there was a […]

Digital toymaker VTech Holdings Ltd, based in Hong Kong, revealed [1] on Friday November 27 that hackers had accessed data of nearly 5 million customers, including “related kids profiles.” Days later, the company clarified [2] that data of 6.4 million children was compromised, including name, gender and birthdate.[3] Motherboard reports the stolen information includes children’s […]

  According to these sources (see here in Spanish and here in English), in November 2015, the Agencia Española de Proteccion de Datós (AEPD) sent a notice to all Spanish companies known to transfer data to third countries. The AEDP asked those companies to cease international data transfers after the European Court of Justice held the Safe Harbour […]

  In November 2015, Google published a report accounting for European privacy requests for search removals after the European Court of Justice issued its famous “right-to-be-forgotten” decision in the Costeja case, C-131/12, holding that data subjects have a right to obtain the delisting of links appearing in the search results based on their name. According to the document, Google evaluated the […]

  On November 16, 2015, EU Commissioner Věra Jourová spoke in Washington about transatlantic data flow. After highlighting the importance of safeguarding, at the same time, the fundamental right to privacy, security, and economic opportunities and business growth, she remembered the latest developments in this area: (a) negotiation on an “umbrella” agreement on privacy and […]

Introduction Developments following the European Court’s 6 October 2015 Schrems ruling that declared data transfers under Safe Harbor invalid continue apace with the publication of an official 16-page Communication from the European Commission of 6 November. Please refer to our main alert for the background and our comments (including 3 videos) on the Schrems judgment and its consequences along with […]