On 13th May, the European Commission’s eHealth Network published its interoperability guidelines for approved contact tracing mobile applications in the EU, guiding developers when designing and implementing applications and backend solutions to ensure efficient tracing of cross-border infection chains. These guidelines serve as a follow-up action to their previously published ‘Common EU Toolbox for Member States’ on mobile applications to support contact tracing in the EU’s fight against COVID-19 on 15th April.

Why are interoperable apps considered important in the fight again COVID-19? It is almost inevitable that in today’s day and age we would look to technology to be part of the solution. The hope is that interoperable apps will facilitate the tracing of cross-border infection chains, which is particularly valuable for cross-border workers, tourism, business trips and neighbouring countries.
Continue Reading The Commission’s eHealth Network looks to develop the interoperability framework for contact tracing apps

Social media users may soon be able to easily transfer their personal information to competing platforms. On October 22, 2019, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators (Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)) introduced the Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching Act (ACCESS Act), a bill aimed at encouraging market-based competition among today’s major social media platforms by requiring the largest of these tech companies to allow users to move their data from one service to another.

The bill, should it become law, would be regulated and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and would require large communications platforms (products or services with over 100 million monthly active users in the U.S.) to:

  • Make users’ personal data portable, by allowing users to retrieve and/or transfer their personal data in a structure and machine-readable format.
  • Maintain interoperability with other platforms, including competing companies.
  • Give users the ability to designate a trusted third-party service to manage their privacy, content, online interactions, and account settings.

Continue Reading Bipartisan social media data portability bill introduced in U.S. Senate

At the beginning of March, representatives of the EU Article 29 Working Party and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (which includes, among others, the United States and the People’s Republic of China) announced the introduction of a new Referential on requirements for binding corporate rules (the Referential).

Both the EU and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) regimes