At its plenary meeting this month, the WP29 adopted the final version of its Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) guidelines.

It also adopted draft guidelines on data breach notification and profiling, and administrative fines, which will be open for public consultation for 6 weeks before their final adoption. The guidelines are expected to be published shortly on the European Commission’s WP29 webpage.

Each WP29 subgroup provided a state of play of its work on the WP29’s priorities on the GDPR, including guidelines on consent, transparency, and update of data transfer tools which are to be adopted…
Continue Reading WP29 adopts draft guidelines on breach notification, profiling and administrative fines

The Government has published its legislation programme for Autumn 2017.  The programme lists priority legislation, legislation due to undergo pre-legislative scrutiny, and all other legislation it is working on. Listed below are the data protection, cyber-security and IP-related Bills coming down the track.

Priority legislation

  • Data Protection Bill – This Bill will give effect to and provide for derogations from the GDPR, and transpose the Law Enforcement Directive (2016/680). The Heads of Bill were published in May 2017, and pre-legislative scrutiny was completed on July 2017.  The legislation programme lists the Bill as “priority legislation for publication” this Autumn, but there is no indication as to when exactly the Bill is expected to be finalised and start its passage through the Oireachtas. See our blog post on the Heads of Bill here.

Continue Reading Data Protection, Cyber-Security & IP legislation coming down the track

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is consulting on draft GDPR guidance on contracts and liabilities between controllers and processors. The guidance seeks to help organisations understand what must be included in contracts under the GDPR, and the new responsibilities and liabilities of processors.
Continue Reading ICO opens consultation on draft guidance on controller/processor contracts and liabilities

The Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has called for submissions on issues of Transparency and International Data Transfers under the GDPR. The submissions received by the DPC from its consultation will be shared with the Article 29 Working Party (WP29), at its third Fablab in Brussels on 18 October 2017 to inform the preparation of new guidelines on transparency under the GDPR and the updating of existing guidelines on international data transfers.
Continue Reading DPC consultation on international transfers & transparency under the GDPR

The EU Council has proposed amendments to the draft ePrivacy Regulation (the Regulation). The Presidency points out that work on the text will be incremental and this is only its first redraft.

Proposed amendments include:

Scope – The Presidency clarifies the precise material and territorial scope of the Regulation, as including:

  • the processing of electronic communications content in transmission, and of electronic communications metadata carried out in connection with the provision of electronic communications services to end-users in the EU;
  • information related to, processed by, or stored in the terminal equipment of end users located in the EU;
  • the placing on the market of software permitting electronic communications, including the retrieval and presentation of information on the internet;
  • the offering of a publicly available directory of end-users of electronic communications services located in the EU, and
  • the sending or presenting of direct marketing communications to end users located in the EU.

Continue Reading EU Council proposes revisions to the draft ePrivacy Regulation

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on 8 September that three U.S. companies have agreed to settle FTC charges that they misled consumers, by falsely claiming they were certified to participate in the Privacy Shield. In separate complaints, the FTC alleges, all three companies failed to complete the certification process for the Shield.  As part of their settlements with the FTC, the three companies are prohibited from misrepresenting the extent to which they participate in any privacy or data security program sponsored by the government or any self-regulatory or standard-setting organization, and must comply with FTC reporting requirements. The actions against the three companies are the first cases the FTC has brought to enforce the Shield, which was adopted last July 2016.
Continue Reading Three U.S. companies charged for falsely claiming compliance with Privacy Shield

Employee monitoring versus privacy rights is back in the spotlight due to today’s decision by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Bărbulescu v. Romania.  The Grand Chamber held there had been a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, where an employer monitored and accessed personal emails sent by an employee during work hours from his Yahoo Messenger account, using a company computer, without notifying the employee in advance of such monitoring.
Continue Reading ECHR rules employees must receive prior notice of email monitoring

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will automatically come into force across the EU on 25 May 2018. As the deadline fast approaches, Member States are busy progressing their draft implementing legislation. Article 23 of the GDPR provides Member States with discretion over how certain provisions will apply. These proposed derogations to the GDPR have been a focus point for many commentators on the draft national legislation.
Continue Reading UK Government sets out proposed derogations under GDPR

News reports have confirmed that on Wednesday 26 July, after a public consultation period on the issue, the Irish Government have agreed to set the digital age of consent at 13 years of age. Article 8 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides that a child under the age of 16 cannot consent to the processing of their personal data without the express consent of their parents. EU Member States have been granted the discretion to set a lower age under the GDPR provided that it is no lower than 13.

The decision follows consideration of a submission made…
Continue Reading Digital Age of Consent agreed by Irish Government