2019 signalled significant growth in both regulatory focus and litigation involving biometric privacy. The passage of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the addition of biometrics to numerous state data breach notification laws (including New York), and continued class action lawsuits emanating from Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) made biometrics a trend line in … Continue Reading
Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) has announced that data breach notification will soon become mandatory in Singapore. However, not all breaches need to be reported. We have prepared this guide to aid businesses in understanding when, to whom and how to notify should they encounter a data breach. As further guidance and details on … Continue Reading
Today, the Advocate General Henrik Saugmandsgaard Øe (AG) published his opinion on a case brought by privacy rights activist, Max Schrems (C-311/18, Data Protection Commissioner v. Facebook Ireland Limited, Maximillian Schrems) (Schrems II). The case concerns the validity of the standard contractual clauses (SCCs). The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) press release … Continue Reading
Increasingly, businesses are looking to adopt data protection certifications and standards for myriad reasons, including enhancing consumer trust, demonstrating compliance when contracting with partners and managing regulatory risk. We have prepared a high-level comparison to guide Singapore businesses in determining which certification or certifications could be the best fit. ISO/IEC 27701:2019 Who can apply: All … Continue Reading
On 4 November 2019, Singapore’s Parliament published a draft amendment to the Banking Act. Under the amendment, all banks will be required to evaluate the ability of their service providers (whether these be a branch or office, or an external party) to: (a) safeguard the confidentiality and integrity, and ensure the availability, of the banks’ … Continue Reading
The Finnish presidency of the Council of the EU (Finnish Presidency) released an updated draft of the Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications (ePrivacy Regulation) on October 30, 2019 (available here). The Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society (WP TELE) will discuss the new draft at its meeting on November 7, 2019. Amendments put … Continue Reading
On 15 October 2019, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) released the latest in its series of blogs on developing its framework for auditing artificial intelligence (AI). The blog (here) focuses on AI systems and how data subjects can exercise their rights of access, rectification and erasure in relation to such systems. Below, we summarise some … Continue Reading
In July 2019, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) held a week-long Global Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crime TechSprint (FCA TechSprint) event. The FCA TechSprint looked at ways to effectively combat financial crime and money laundering within the financial services industry. On 16 October 2019, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) released a blog (here) that … Continue Reading
The Fourth Amendment has received significant attention in recent court rulings involving surveillance, electronic data retrieval, and other types of technology. Two rulings issued on October 21, 2019 demonstrate how difficult it can be to anticipate the outcome of Fourth Amendment disputes relating to technology. In one, the Georgia Supreme Court found the warrantless search … Continue Reading
On October 10, 2019, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued proposed regulations implementing and interpreting the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). The draft regulations address privacy policies, consumer notices, practices for handling consumer requests, ways to verify consumer requests, requirements regarding minors, and rules governing nondiscrimination practices. The regulations are currently in draft form, with … Continue Reading
In a continued pursuit for cybersecurity compliance, New York Attorney General (AG) Letitia James has sued Dunkin’ Brands, Inc. (franchisor of Dunkin’ Donuts) over two data breaches in 2015 and 2018, accusing the company of mishandling a series of cyberattacks that together compromised more than 320,000 customer accounts. In the complaint filed last week, AG … Continue Reading
Another potentially groundbreaking California ballot initiative has been announced, just as companies began to digest and incorporate the amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) into their compliance plans and learned the draft CCPA regulations will be issued by the California Attorney General in October. Last week, the primary advocate for and co-architect of … Continue Reading
On 12 September 2019, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe announced that an Ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI) will be set up to consider the feasibility of a legal framework for the development, design and application of Artificial intelligence (AI). On the same day, the United Kingdom’s data protection supervisory … Continue Reading
Late last week, the California legislature approved five bills intended to clarify the scope and required compliance obligations of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA or the Act). Organizations now have just over three months to determine whether they need to comply with the newly amended CCPA, assess what their obligations are, and implement the … Continue Reading
In its response dated 3 July 2019 (Response; file no. 19/11351, available in German here) to an inquiry by members of the German parliament (Inquiry), the German government took stand on the current draft Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications (ePrivacy Regulation), and particularly on “tracking”. The German government summarises its assessment of the ePrivacy … Continue Reading
Many states are following in the footsteps of Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), a law that has led to an increase in the volume of class action privacy litigation and highlighted the importance of enterprise-level management of biometric data (e.g., fingerprint, voiceprint, and retina, facial, or iris image). Organizations that collect and use biometric … Continue Reading
The UK’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, has vowed that the UK will leave the EU on October 31, 2019. A unilateral (or “hard”) Brexit poses many privacy and data protection challenges for companies that operate in the UK. Post-Brexit privacy and data protection issues that you need to consider include: how to maintain uninterrupted … Continue Reading
On July 25, 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security (SHIELD) Act (S.5575B/A.5635), which significantly increases obligations for businesses handling private data to notify affected consumers upon experiencing a security breach. Additionally, Governor Cuomo signed the Identity Theft Prevention and Mitigating Services Act (A.2374/S.3582), requiring … Continue Reading
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recent $5 billion settlement with Facebook is unprecedented in multiple respects: The $5 billion penalty represents the largest privacy and data security settlement in history – it is almost 20 times larger than the recent Equifax Inc. settlement and dwarfs recent EU data protection enforcement actions. As part of the … Continue Reading
The recently announced multistate settlement between credit reporting company Equifax Inc. and the Attorneys General of 48 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia (the AGs) demonstrates the increasingly active role of state regulators in policing the privacy and security practices of businesses that handle consumers’ personal information. The multistate settlement is part of … Continue Reading
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (the “Chamber”) recently hosted a data privacy summit, “#DataDoneRight”, which brought together a group of industry professionals, government stakeholders, and privacy thought leaders to talk about data privacy. The Chamber, which has proposed federal privacy legislation, engaged a wide variety of speakers, covering multiple viewpoints, to demonstrate the need for … Continue Reading
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week gathered a diverse, bipartisan group of policymakers, regulators, industry representatives and thought leaders to discuss all things data privacy at #DataDoneRight, its 2019 privacy summit. Topics included the California Consumer Privacy Act, the possibility of federal privacy legislation and working with privacy regulators, and the summit featured a … Continue Reading
As states’ “top cops,” one of the primary responsibilities of state attorneys general (AGs) is consumer protection, and more and more AGs are focusing on how to protect consumer data privacy. Discussions at the recent Conference of Western Attorneys General (“CWAG”) Annual Meeting in Santa Barbara reflect this focus and demonstrate that state enforcers are … Continue Reading
May was a busy month for state privacy law updates and amendments. In addition to amendments made by Texas to its breach notification law, both Oregon and Nevada expanded their privacy-related laws this month, while Illinois’s CCPA-like law failed to pass after a variety of amendments related to whether the law would allow for a … Continue Reading
