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Paul Maynard

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Paul Maynard is an associate in the technology regulatory group in the London office. He focuses on advising clients on all aspects of UK and European privacy and cybersecurity law relating to complex and innovative technologies such as adtech, cloud computing and online platforms. He also advises clients on how to respond to law enforcement demands, particularly where such demands are made across borders.

Paul advises emerging and established companies in various sectors, including online retail, software and education technology. His practice covers advice on new legislative proposals, for example on e-privacy and cross-border law enforcement access to data; advice on existing but rapidly-changing rules, such the GDPR and cross-border data transfer rules; and on regulatory investigations in cases of alleged non-compliance, including in relation to online advertising and cybersecurity.

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On April 18, 2023, the European Commission published its proposal for an EU Cyber Solidarity Act (“CSA”).  It aims to strengthen incident detection, situational awareness, and response capabilities, and to ensure that entities providing services critical for day-to-day life can access expert support to manage their cyber risk and respond to incidents.  Specifically, the CSA aims to promote information sharing about cyber incidents and vulnerabilities, to help improve the cyber resilience of critical entities, and to create an EU-wide resource for incident management.

The CSA adds another layer to the increasingly crowded landscape of EU cybersecurity laws.  The proposed law would interact with the revised Network and Information Security Directive (“NIS2”) and certifications issued under the Cybersecurity Act. Private companies in specific sectors will also have to consider potential overlap with the forthcoming Cyber Resilience Act and the financial services-focused Digital Operation Resilience Act.

Below, we set out three striking features of the CSA that are likely to be of particular relevance to private companies.…

Continue Reading Three Interesting Features of the Proposed EU Cyber Solidarity Act

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) recently published detailed draft guidance on what “likely to be accessed” by children means in the context of its Age-Appropriate Design Code (“Code”), which came into force on September 2, 2020. The Code applies to online services “likely to be accessed by children” in the UK. “Children” are individuals under the age of 18. In order to determine whether an online service is “likely to be accessed” by children, companies must assess whether the nature and content of the service has “particular appeal for children” and “the way in which the service was accessed”. This new draft guidance provides further assistance on how to make this assessment, and is undergoing a public consultation until May 19, 2023.…

Continue Reading UK ICO Provides Guidance On When A Service Is “Likely To Be Accessed By Children” And Needs To Comply With Its Age-Appropriate Design Code

At the beginning of a new year, we are looking ahead to five key technology trends in the EMEA region that are likely to impact businesses in 2023.…

Continue Reading Top Five EMEA Technology Trends to Watch in 2023

The UK Government’s (UKG) proposals for new, sector-specific cybersecurity rules continue to take shape. Following the announcement of a Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill and a consultation on the security of apps and app stores in the Queen’s Speech (which we briefly discuss here), the UKG issued a call for views on whether action is needed to ensure cyber security in data centres and cloud services (described here).

In recent weeks, the UKG has made two further announcements:

  • On 30 August 2022, it issued a response to its public consultation on the draft Electronic Communications (Security measures) Regulations 2022 (Draft Regulations) and a draft Telecommunications Security code of practice (COP), before laying a revised version of the Draft Regulations before Parliament on 5 September.
  • On 1 September 2022, it issued a call for information on the risks associated with unauthorized access to individuals’ online accounts and personal data, and measures that could be taken to limit that risk.

We set out below further detail on these latest developments.

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Continue Reading A packed end to the UK’s cyber summer: Government moves forward with telecoms cybersecurity proposals and consults on a Cyber Duty to Protect

On August 1, 2022, the CJEU issued its ruling in Case 184/20 (OT v Vyriausioji tarnybinės etikos komisija) following a referral from the Lithuanian Regional Administrative Court. In this ruling, the CJEU elected to interpret the GDPR very broadly in a judgment that is likely to have a significant impact for organisations processing…

On 18 July 2022, following its recent response to the public consultation on the reform of UK data protection law (see our blog post on the response here), the UK Government introduced its draft Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (the “Bill”) to the House of Commons.

The Bill is 192 pages, and contains 113 sections and 13 Schedules, which amend and sit alongside existing law (the UK GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA”), Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (“PECR”), the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, etc.). Some readers’ immediate reaction might be to query whether the Bill will simplify the legislative framework for businesses operating in the UK and facilitate the goal of the Information Commissioner to provide “certainty” for businesses. Time will tell. The Government’s publication of a Keeling Schedule (essentially a redline of the UK GDPR and DPA 2018 showing the changes resulting from the Bill), expected in the Autumn, will be welcome.

Much of the content of the Bill was previewed in the Government’s consultation response and include proposed changes that are designed to try to reduce the administrative burden on business to some extent.  The Bill is by no means a radical departure from existing law, however, and in some key areas – such as data transfers – the law will essentially remain the same.  But we now have additional important details on proposed changes to UK data protection law, and we set out in this post our immediate thoughts on some details that are worth highlighting.…

Continue Reading A Cautious Approach: the UK Government’s Data Protection and Digital Information Bill

In October 2019, the UK and U.S. Governments signed an agreement on cross-border law enforcement demands for data from Communication Service Providers (the “Agreement”, which we described in our earlier post here). Only now, however, have the two countries completed the procedural steps required to bring the Agreement into force. On July 21, 2022…

The UK Government recently published its long-awaited response to its data reform consultation, ‘Data: A new direction’ (see our post on the consultation, here).

As many readers are aware, following Brexit, the UK Government has to walk a fine line between trying to reduce the compliance burden on organizations and retaining the ‘adequacy’ status that the European Commission granted in 2021 (see our post on the decision, here).

While we’ll have to wait to review the detail of the final legislation, we outline below some of the more eye-catching proposals for reform.…

Continue Reading 8 Eye-catching Reforms in the UK Government’s Response to its Public Consultation on Data Protection Law

The most significant change that GDPR made to EU data privacy law was to enhance enforcement and create a framework for increased fines for non-compliance. Four years after the GDPR started to apply, and as enforcement action picks up across the EU, the EDPB has finally issued draft guidelines on the calculation of administrative fines…