ISPs

Under the so-called e-Privacy Directive, providers of publicly available electronic communications services (primarily telecom providers and ISPs) are obliged to notify the competent national authorities and, in certain cases also the subscribers and individuals concerned, of personal data breaches. In order to ensure consistency in the implementation of this notification obligation by the EU Member States the European Commission has adopted technical implementing measures in form of a Regulation No 611/2013 on the notification of personal data breaches in the electronic communication sector which entered into force on 25 August.

The Regulation, which has direct effect in all EU Member States, specifies the circumstances, the format and procedures applicable to these notification requirements under the e-Privacy Directive in case of personal data breaches (that is any breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed in connection with the provision of a publicly available electronic communications service in the EU).Continue Reading Data Breach Notification within 24 hours in the Electronic Communication Sector – An Example to Follow in the Reform of the EU Data Protection Directive?

By Kurt Wimmer and Josephine Liu

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has released a report warning that terrorists are increasingly using the Internet to spread propaganda, recruit and train supporters, finance their activities, and plan terrorist attacks.  Besides providing an overview of the existing legal frameworks to address terrorists’ use of the Internet, the report highlights a number of challenges associated with investigating and prosecuting terrorism cases — and specifically notes that “[o]ne of the major problems confronting all law enforcement agencies is the lack of an internationally agreed framework for retention of data held by ISPs.”   

As the report notes, some countries already require ISPs to retain certain types of data for a specified time period.  But even in the European Union, where Directive 2006/24/EC requires Member States to ensure that regulated providers retain specified communications data for a period between six months and two years, there is no consistent data-retention period.  Some Member States require data to be retained for six months, others for two years.  In addition, several Member States continue to grapple with implementing the Directive, including Germany (where an attempt to implement it was struck down by the constitutional court). Continue Reading UN Report Calls for Mandatory Data Retention

On 1 April, 2012, the UK press reported that the UK Home Office is preparing to propose new legislative reform of the communications data monitoring law, in the Queen’s Speech in May.  The press reports, and the response from the Home Office on 3 April 2012, provided some further details on a programme that was first announced (without detail) by the current Government in October 2010 in the Strategic Defence and Security Review.  The programme, which resembles a predecessor plan under the prior Labour Government named the “Interception Modernisation Programme”, is now known as the “Communications Capability Development Programme” (CCDP). Continue Reading UK Government prepares new legislative proposal to modernise communications data monitoring law