Data Protection Act

Subscribe to Data Protection Act

The Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 have been laid before the UK Parliament.

The regulations are introduced under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. The Withdrawal Act grants powers to correct deficiencies in UK legislation that will arise as a result of Brexit.

The regulations introduce a large number of technical amendments to UK law. The main amendments are made to:

  1. the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) as retained by UK law;
  2. the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018); and
  3. The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR).

When the United Kingdom (UK) leaves the European Union (EU), the UK will no longer be subject to obligations under GDPR (except for processing still caught by the GDPR’s extra-territorial scope). However, the Withdrawal Act provides that the text of the GDPR will form part of UK domestic law after Brexit (UK GDPR). As a result, the text of UK GDPR must be amended to remedy potential deficiencies for when the UK is no longer part of the EU. The text of the DPA 2018 must also be amended to implement UK GDPR.Continue Reading Brexit countdown: UK government to amend domestic data protection legislation

On 27 January, the High Court of Northern Ireland granted British MP George Galloway leave to serve proceedings on Google Inc. out of the jurisdiction. The application was based on a variety of claims including libel, harassment, misuse of private information, and unlawful data processing under the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act).

The claims relate to three videos uploaded to Google’s YouTube platform by William Frazer. It was claimed that these videos had been uploaded unlawfully. The court stated that there could be no doubt that one of the three videos contained sensitive personal data, but that the question of whether Google was a data processor or data controller would be a “fact specific investigation” which would have to wait until full trial. The view was expressed in the judgment that “[T]he facts as presently put before the court would suggest that Google will not find it easy to defend this claim if it is found to be a data controller.”
Continue Reading Galloway v Frazer & Others – A glimpse to the future of data protection litigation

In the battle between protecting children’s right to privacy and allowing publishers to exercise their freedom of expression, recent case law has seen children’s rights triumph.

The case of Weller and Others v. Associated Newspapers Limited involved the publication of unpixelated photographs of three children aged 10 months to 16 years, who also happened to be the children of Paul Weller, an English singer, songwriter and musician. An action was brought for damages for misuse of private information, breach of the Data Protection Act, and an injunction preventing the Mail Online from publishing any further images.

The case saw the Court of Appeal uphold the Court of First Instance’s judgment in favour of the children claimants on the grounds that they had a reasonable expectation of privacy, and their Article 8 right to a private and family life outweighed the defendant’s Article 10 right to freedom of expression and information.
Continue Reading The battle between children’s right to privacy vs. publisher’s freedom of expression

This post was written by Cynthia O’Donoghue.

On October 17, 2012, Colombia enacted a new Data Protection Law which will regulate data collection and processing of personal data both within the Colombian territory and extraterritorially.

The law generally follows the EU approach including, amongst other provisions, cross-border data transfer restrictions where the destination country’s…