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On August 25, 2016, WhatsApp issued a statement informing its users that the application’s terms and privacy policy was updated, which was also a consequence of WhatsApp’s joining Facebook. Allegedly WhatsApp wanted to modify the privacy policy to allow users to “communicate with businesses”.  WhatsApp notified all users –with the latest supported versions of the […]

Texas Ethic Opinion 661 Professional Ethics Committee for the State Bar of Texas   Topic: Use of competing lawyer or law firm’s name as keyword in advertising services offered by search-engine companies   Conclusion of the Committee: “A lawyer does not violate the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct by simply using the name of […]

On July 20, 2016, the French data protection agency (CNIL) sent Microsoft a formal notice about alleged excesses in personal data collection and user tracking by Windows 10 operating system. Considering the seriousness of the deficiencies and the number of people affected (more than ten million users of Windows 10 in France), the CNIL sent […]

On July 14, 2016, the EU Commission sent two Statements of Objections to Google and Alphabet (Google’s parent company). With the first Statement, the EU Commission reaffirmed its preliminary conclusion that “Google has abused its dominant position by systematically favouring its comparison shopping service in its search result pages”. With the second Statement, the Commission […]

After the October 6, 2015, European Court of Justice’s annulment of the Safe Harbor decision of adequacy (Maximilian Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner), the European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) gave businesses until January 31, 2016, for the start of enforcement of the Schrems’ decision (see here). The Safe Harbor Scheme had been used for almost 15 years as […]

After the October 6, 2015, European Court of Justice’s annulment of the Safe Harbor decision of adequacy (Maximilian Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner), the European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) gave businesses until January 31, 2016, for the start of enforcement of the Schrems’ decision (see here). The Safe Harbor Scheme had been used for almost 15 years as the […]

On March 10, 2016, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regulating how broadband Internet service providers can use and share customer data. According to a Fact sheet that the FCC released and that summarizes the NPRM, the proposed rules deal specifically with consent to use/sharing of data, breach notification […]

The Bundeskartellamt (the German AntitrustAuthority) initiated a proceeding against Facebook Inc., USA (the Irish sub sidiary of the company) and Facebook Germany GmbH, Hamburg on allegations that the tech giant abused its dominant position in the social market networks market by way of imposing certain terms of service on the use of data. The Antitrust […]

On February 16, 2016, Article 29 Working Party (WP29) issued an update on Opinion 8/2010 on applicable law. The update provides explanations concerning the applicable law in light of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judgement’s in Google Spain (or Costeja case, C-131/12). The ruling of May 13, 2015 held that EU data subjects have a right […]

On February 8, 2016, the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) issued a formal notice to Facebook to comply within three months with the French Data Protection Act. According to CNIL, among other violations, Facebook is breaching French Data Protection Laws by transferring “personal data to the United States on the basis of Safe Harbour, although the […]