On March 25, 2019, Vienna’s higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht Wien) ruled that “every citizen can not only file a complaint with the data protection authority, but also submit a lawsuit in courts.” See here. The claims is complicated and concerns Facebook’s breach of EU privacy laws. See here for more info. The admissibility of […]
On March 12, 2019, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published an opinion defining the GDPR’s scope of application and providing an interpretation on data protection authorities’ competences, tasks and powers. The Belgian Data Protection Authority (DPA) requested the EDPB to examine and issue an opinion on the interplay between the ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC) and […]
Update: In October 2019, the European Court of Justice held that in order to store cookies on user devices, the users must actively consent and that pre-checked checkbox that users must actively deselect is not a valid form of consent. The European Court of Justice also stated that all types of cookies require active consent, […]
On March 14, 2019, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, DPA) published on Netherlands Official Gazette its own General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) fining policy. It is the first European Union (EU) country to do so. Article 83, GDPR, provides that DPAs can issue to controllers and processors “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” administrative fines […]
On January 10, 2019, the Italian Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali, the Italian data protection authority, DPA, released an opinion according to which the deceased continues to enjoy the protections provided for by the data protection legislation. In a case of alleged malpractice, an individual asked a healthcare company to allow access […]
Regulation (EU) 2018/1807 of 14 November 2018, which deals with “non personal data” in the framework of the EU’s digital single market strategy; it aims at removing obstacles to data mobility and the internal single market. In particular, it prohibits data localization requirements by place EU Member States in point of storage or processing of non-personal data, […]
On February 27, 2019, the American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a proposed stipulated order for civil penalties and other reliefs against Musical.ly for violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from kids without parental consent. The $5.7 million civil penalty is the FTC’s largest ever under COPPA. […]
On February 2, 2019, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) published a Survey on Device Fingerprinting. (“Survey“) “Device fingerprinting is the systematic gathering of information on a specific remote device with the aim of identifying, singling out and, thus being able to monitor its user’s activity for the purpose of profiling.” The data set extracted […]
On February 20, 2019, Bulgaria adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, GDPR) harmonization law. The law amends and supplements the previous data protection act from 2002. It also transposes the EU Law Enforcement Directive (Directive (EU) 2016/680). The new Law on Personal Data Protection (LASLPDP) entered into force on March 2, 2019 […]
On February 7, 2019, the Bundeskartellamt, the German antitrust authority, prohibited Facebook from combining data concerning German Facebook users gathered also from third party websites when the user didn’t give voluntary consent to this practice. The decision concerns all private users of Facebook based in Germany. According to the Bundeskartellamt’s decision, until now, individuals […]