The COVID-19 pandemic has seen governments across the world restricting civil liberties and movement to unprecedented levels. To aid the safe lifting of current public health restrictions, new technologies are being developed and rolled out to automate labour intensive tasks
Last week, the Irish Data Protection Commission (“DPC”) published its much anticipated guidance note on cookies and similar tracking technologies (the “Guidance”). It also published a report following a “cookie sweep” that took place between August 2019 and December 2019 of 38 data controllers (the “Report”). The cookie sweep requested information from the data controllers and examined the deployment of cookies on their websites to understand how and whether they were complying with the cookie rules. It is clear the Report significantly influenced the Guidance and, as such, the Report provides an indication of the areas where the DPC seems likely to focus its enforcement efforts which is discussed below.
On February 7, 2020, and again on March 11, 2020, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) issued revisions to the proposed California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) regulations, and there are some surprises in both the additions and in the
Employers across the world are facing extremely difficult challenges in keeping their workplaces safe for their employees, contractors and visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the prevailing instinct is likely to be to protect and to prevent the spread of the virus at all costs, under data protection laws this still needs to be weighed against the privacy rights of employees. Depending on where their employees are located, employers may have to favor privacy over virus detection. This blog sets out a few of the key issues and a snapshot of how they are dealt with across five European jurisdictions (the UK, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands), the US and three Asian jurisdictions (China, Hong Kong and Singapore) as of April 3, 2020. It examines the position under labor and data protection laws without exploration of wider State powers that may be exercised in some jurisdictions.
On March 10, 2020, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) issued guidance to all of its regulated institutions engaged in virtual currency business activity, requiring them to have plans for preparedness to manage the possible operational and financial risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. NYDFS requires the plans to be submitted by Thursday, April 9, 2020.
In a judgment which will be warmly welcomed by employers (and their insurers) in the UK, the UK Supreme Court today overruled the Court of Appeal in holding that that Morrisons supermarkets is not vicariously liable for a data breach maliciously caused by a former employee.