Data Privacy

On January 13, 2021, the Advocate General (“AG”), Michal Bobek, of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued his Opinion in Case C-645/19 Facebook Ireland Limited, Facebook Inc., Facebook Belgium BVBA v. the Belgian Data Protection Authority (“Belgian DPA”).  The AG determined that the one-stop shop mechanism under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) prevents supervisory authorities, who are not the lead supervisory authority (“LSA”) of a controller or processor, from bringing proceedings before their national court, except in limited and exceptional cases specifically provided for by the GDPR.  The case will now move to the CJEU for a final judgment.
Continue Reading Supervisory Authorities Cannot Circumvent One-Stop-Shop According to CJEU Advocate General

On December 18, 2020, the Irish Data Protection Commission (“DPC”) published its draft Fundamentals for a Child-Oriented Approach to Data Processing (the “Fundamentals”). The Fundamentals introduce child-specific data protection principles and measures, which are designed to protect children against data processing risks when they access services, both online and off-line. The DPC notes that all organizations collecting and processing children’s data should comply with the Fundamentals. The Fundamentals are open for public consultation until March 31, 2021.
Continue Reading Irish DPC publishes draft Fundamentals for a Child-Oriented Approach to Data Processing

On December 15, 2020, the Irish Data Protection Commission (“DPC”) fined Twitter International Company (“TIC”) EUR 450,000 (USD 500,000) following a narrow investigation into TIC’s compliance with obligations to (a) notify a personal data breach within 72 hours under Article 33(1) GDPR; and (b) document the facts of the breach under Article 33(5) GDPR. The process to investigate these points took a little under two years, and resulted in a decision of nearly 200 pages.

This is the first time that the DPC has issued a GDPR fine as a lead supervisory authority (“LSA”) after going through the “cooperation” and “consistency” mechanisms that enable other authorities to raise objections and the EDPB to resolve disagreements. The delay in the process and details in the EDPB binding resolution suggest that this was a somewhat arduous process. Several authorities raised objections in response to the DPC’s draft report – regarding the identity of the controller (Irish entity and/or U.S. parent), the competence of the DPC to be LSA, the scope of the investigation, the size of the fine, and other matters. Following some back and forth — most authorities maintained their objections despite the DPC’s explanations — the DPC referred the matter to the EDPB under the GDPR’s dispute resolution procedure. The EDPB considered the objections and dismissed nearly all of them as not being “relevant and reasoned”, but did require the DPC to reassess the level of the proposed fine.

Process aside, the DPC’s decision contains some interesting points on when a controller is deemed to be “aware” of a personal data breach for the purpose of notifying a breach to a supervisory authority. This may be particularly relevant for companies based in Europe that rely on parent companies in the US and elsewhere to process data on their behalf. The decision also underlines the importance of documenting breaches and what details organizations should include in these internal reports.
Continue Reading Twitter Fine: a View into the Consistency Mechanism, and “Constructive Awareness” of Breaches

Yesterday, the California Attorney General (“AG”) proposed a fourth set of modifications to the California Consumer Privacy Act regulations. These modifications build on the third set of proposed regulations released by the AG in October, which we discussed here. Interested parties have until December 28 to submit comments in response.
Continue Reading California Attorney General Releases Fourth Set of Proposed Modifications to California Consumer Privacy Act Regulations

On 11 November 2020, the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) issued two draft recommendations relating to the rules on how organizations may lawfully transfer personal data from the EU to countries outside the EU (“third countries”).  These draft recommendations, which are non-final and open for public consultation until 30 November 2020, follow the EU Court of Justice (“CJEU”) decision in Case C-311/18 (“Schrems II”).  (For a more in-depth summary of the CJEU decision, please see our blog post here and our audiocast here. The EDPB also published on 24 July 2020 FAQs on the Schrems II decision here).

The two recommendations adopted by the EDPB are:

Continue Reading EDPB adopts recommendations on international data transfers following Schrems II decision

Voters in California approved Proposition 24, which updates the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) just a few months after the landmark regulations implementing the privacy law went into effect.  As we have previously explained, the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) will change the existing CCPA requirements in a number of ways, including limiting the sharing of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising and the use of “sensitive” personal information, as well as creating a new correction right.  It also establishes a new agency to enforce California privacy law.  The key provisions of the bill will not go into effect until January 1, 2023, providing much-needed time to clarify the details and for businesses to adjust their CCPA compliance approaches to account for the additional requirements.
Continue Reading Californians Approve Ballot Initiative Modifying the California Consumer Privacy Act

On our fourth episode of our Inside Privacy Audiocast, we are aiming our looking glass at the California Privacy Rights Act, and are joined by guest speaker Jacob Snow, Technology and Civil Liberties Attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.

In September 2019, Alastair Mactaggart, Board Chair and Founder of Californians for…

The California legislature has approved a contingency plan to ensure that certain California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) exemptions will be extended beyond December 2020.  Regardless of what happens with the November ballot initiative, businesses will have at least another year before they must comply with all of the CCPA’s provisions when collecting or using certain…

Two developments in the past week will likely have a significant impact on businesses subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”): the long-awaited CCPA regulations have been finalized and put into immediate effect with modifications, while at the same time it seems increasingly likely that the exemptions for employees’ and business-to-business contacts’ data will be extended beyond January 2021.
Continue Reading Final CCPA Regulations Take Effect With Modification; Extension of Employee and Business-to-Business Exemptions Advances