Privacy by Design

On June 9, 2021, the French Supervisory Authority (“CNIL”) published recommendations to help strengthen the protection of minors online (see here, in French).  These recommendations are the result of a survey and public consultation conducted by the CNIL in 2020, which focused on the digital practices of minors (see our blog post here).  The results of the CNIL’s survey and public consultation indicate that children are accessing the Internet at an early age on a “massive” scale.  In light of this reality, the CNIL underscores the importance of ensuring that minors benefit from the effective protection of their personal data when engaging online.
Continue Reading French CNIL Publishes Recommendations for Protecting Minors Online

On January 27, 2020, the French Supervisory Authority (“CNIL”) issued a guidance for developers of websites and applications which sets out the main principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), expounds on their application in the online environment, and gives practical tips to help developers respect users’ privacy when deploying websites and apps.

The guidance consists of 17 recommendations, each covering a key principle supported by additional advice and examples.  Below, we list all 17 of these recommendations and provide a brief summary of the CNIL’s advice related to each.Continue Reading French Supervisory Authority Publishes Guidance for Website and App Developers

On October 30, 2019, the supervisory authority (“SA”) of Berlin issued a € 14.5 million fine against the real estate company Deutsche Wohnen SE for storing personal data of tenants without a legal basis (Art. 6 GDPR) and for not implementing the GDPR principle of privacy by design (Art. 5 and 25(1) GDPR) (press release

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) now has released the preliminary draft of the “NIST Privacy Framework: A Tool for Improving Privacy through Enterprise Risk Management.”  NIST is seeking comments on the preliminary draft of the Privacy Framework and plans to use these comments to develop version 1.0 of the Privacy Framework.  Comments are due by 5:00 p.m. ET on October 24, 2019.
Continue Reading NIST Releases Preliminary Draft of Privacy Framework

Last week, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (“NTIA”) released submissions it had received from the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) staff and many other parties on NTIA’s proposed framework for advancing consumer privacy while protecting innovation.  Although NTIA did not request comments on a possible federal privacy bill, most submissions took the opportunity to inform NTIA of what such a federal privacy bill should look like.
Continue Reading NTIA Publishes Stakeholder Comments on Consumer Privacy Proposal

The Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) announced in early September intention to create a Privacy Framework.  This Privacy Framework would provide voluntary guidelines that assist organizations in managing privacy risks.  The NIST announcement recognized that the Privacy Framework is timely because disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence and the internet of things, not only enhance convenience, growth, and productivity, but also require more complex networking environments and massive amounts of data.
Continue Reading NIST Begins Developing a Voluntary Online Privacy Framework

Designing data-driven products and services in compliance with privacy requirements can be a challenging process.  Technological innovation enables novel uses of personal data, and companies designing new data-driven products must navigate new, untested, and sometimes unclear requirements of privacy laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  These challenges are often particularly acute for companies providing products and services leveraging artificial intelligence technologies, or operating with sensitive personal data, such as digital health products and services.

Recognising some of the above challenges, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has commenced a consultation on establishing a “regulatory sandbox”.  The first stage is a survey to gather market views on how such a regulatory sandbox may work (Survey).  Interested organisations have until 12 October to reply.

The key feature of the regulatory sandbox is to allow companies to test ideas, services and business models without risk of enforcement and in a manner that facilitates greater engagement between industry and the ICO as new products and services are being developed.

The regulatory sandbox model has been deployed in other areas, particularly in the financial services sector (see here), including by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK (see here).

Potential benefits of the regulatory sandbox include reducing regulatory uncertainty, enabling more products to be brought to market, and reducing the time of doing so, while ensuring appropriate protections are in place (see the FCA’s report on its regulatory sandbox here for the impact it has had on the financial services sector, including lessons learned).

The ICO indicated earlier this year that it intends to launch the regulatory sandbox in 2019 and will focus on AI applications (see here).

Further details on the scope of the Survey are summarised below.Continue Reading ICO consults on privacy “regulatory sandbox”

The Article 29 Working Party (“WP29”) – the representatives of national data protection regulators in the EU – has issued new guidance on three important aspects of the new General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which comes into force in May 2018.

This first salvo of GDPR-focused guidance concerns:

  1. the new “Right to Data Portability”, an obligation on companies and public authorities to build tools that allow users to download their data or transfer it directly to a competitor (the guidance is here, and an FAQ is here);
  2. the new obligation for organizations to appoint a “Data Protection Officer”, a quasi-independent role within companies that will be tasked with internal supervision and advice regarding GDPR compliance (guidance / FAQ); and
  3. the new “One Stop Shop” mechanism – helping companies identify which “lead” data protection authority will be their main point of contact for multi-country regulatory procedures (guidance / FAQ).

Despite the guidance having formally been “adopted”, the WP29 is nevertheless inviting stakeholder comments on the new guidance, until the end of January 2017.  Indeed, the guidance takes a number of positions that could attract large volumes of comments ahead of the January 31 deadline.
Continue Reading New EU GDPR Guidance: Data Portability, Data Protection Officers, and the One Stop Shop

By Kristof Van Quathem

Yesterday, the European Commission launched its “Digitising European Industry” package, a series of industry related initiatives aimed at “updating Europe’s digital infrastructure”, see press release here, Q&A here and homepage here.  The package includes reports and proposals addressing cloud computing, ICT standardization, eGovernment, Internet of Things (“IoT”), quantum technologies and high performance computing / big data.

Below we summarize the data protection aspects of the key communications published yesterday.
Continue Reading Digital Single Market – New Initiatives for Cloud Computing and Internet of Things

On Tuesday, the FTC announced the agenda for PrivacyCon, which is being billed as a “first-of-its-kind event” that will facilitate discussions between researchers and academics about privacy and security.  The FTC also released abstracts for the research that will be presented at the conference, scheduled for January 14.  PrivacyCon follows a call from the FTC last summer to “white hat” researchers and academics for papers on new vulnerabilities and how they might be exploited to harm consumers, as well as research in the area of big data, the Internet of things and consumer attitudes towards privacy.
Continue Reading FTC Releases Agenda for First-Ever PrivacyCon