Topic: Compliance and risk management

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Application by Privacy Commissioner To Shed Light on Judicial Enforcement of PIPEDA

Data Protection Report - Norton Rose Fulbright

Recent legal action by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) will shed light on the Federal Court’s willingness to enforce and monitor compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). On February 6, the OPC filed a notice of application (the Application) in the Federal Court seeking a declaration that Facebook has contravened PIPEDA and various orders that would compel Facebook to bring itself into compliance. [1] Organizations governed by PIPEDA should keep a close eye on the Court’s inquiry as well as any eventual order enforcing compliance with the Act.… Continue Reading

The French data protection authority (CNIL) adopts a new standard on whistleblowing systems

By Nadège Martin (FR) and Geoffroy Coulouvrat (FR) on February 5, 2020 Posted in Compliance and risk management

At the end of 2019, following a public consultation, the CNIL adopted its much-anticipated “standard” on whistleblowing systems. The “standard” is essentially a reference document which serves as guidance for those implementing whistleblowing systems.… Continue Reading

The CNIL releases draft practical guidance on cookies consent

By Nadège Martin (FR) and Cécile Auvieux (FR) on February 4, 2020 Posted in Compliance and risk management

The CNIL has published draft recommendations on how to obtain consent when placing cookies. This is following the publication of its revised “Guidelines on the implementation of cookies or similar tracking technologies” which was published in July 2019 (see our article here).

The objective of the recommendations is to provide stakeholders with practical guidance and illustrative examples. These recommendations are neither exhaustive nor binding and data controllers are free to consider other practical measures as long as they comply with the revised rules as provided by the CNIL in July 2019. The CNIL also provides a number of “good … Continue Reading

Changes to Hong Kong’s data protection law discussed by government panel

By Anna Gamvros (HK) and Libby Ryan (HK) on January 21, 2020 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Regulatory response

The discussion paper on the proposed changes to Hong Kong’s Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap.486) (the PDPO) was debated by the Legislative Council’s Panel on Constitutional Affairs’ (the Panel) on 20 January. The proposals set out in LC Paper. No. CB(2) 512/19-20(03) (the Paper) are summarised in our earlier post.… Continue Reading

The Privacy Officers’ New Year’s Resolutions

By Marcus Evans (UK) and Janine Regan (UK) on January 6, 2020 Posted in CCPA, Compliance and risk management

1. Brace yourself (for export turbulence)

2020 could well be a year of data export turmoil – so brace yourself.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will determine the validity of the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) (Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland Limited, Maximillan Schrems) whilst the General Court of the EU will consider the future of Privacy Shield (La Quadrature du Net v Commission).

The Advocate General (AG) delivered his non-binding opinion on the SCCs just before Christmas (see our blog post). Although the AG’s view was that the SCCs are valid, … Continue Reading

Record Retention is a Key Component of Your Privacy and Cyber Compliance Program

By Marcus Evans (UK), Janine Regan (UK), Christoph Ritzer (DE), Andrea D'Ambra (US) and David Kessler (US) on December 23, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Cybersecurity

This blogpost summarises our recent webinar: “An urgent message from Berlin: The importance of record retention in privacy and cybersecurity”.… Continue Reading

Schrems II: AG deems SCCs valid but comes up with difficult new obligations and expresses “doubts” over privacy shield

By Marcus Evans (UK), Christoph Ritzer (DE), Janine Regan (UK) and David Kessler (US) on December 20, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Enforcement, General

What has happened?

Yesterday, the Advocate General (“AG”) concluded that, in his opinion, the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) are a valid mechanism to transfer personal data outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”). However, the AG suggested new obligations for those using SCCs. They need to examine the national security laws of the country of the data importer to determine whether they can in fact comply with the terms of SCCs.… Continue Reading

Russian Data Localization law: now with monetary penalties

By Vera Shaftan (RU) on December 20, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management

On 2 December, a new law was introduced in Russia to enable substantial administrative fines to be imposed on organizations and individuals that fail to comply with data localization requirements. Both legal entities and responsible managers (e.g. the Data Protection Officer or the CEO) can be fined under the new regime.… Continue Reading

Mic Drop: California AG releases long-awaited CCPA Rulemaking

By David Kessler (US), Jeewon Kim Serrato (US), Susan Ross (US), Anna Rudawski (US) and Max Kellogg (US) on October 11, 2019 Posted in CCPA, Compliance and risk management

Data Protection Report - digital privacy, CCPA and cybersecurity

On October 10, 2019, with just weeks to go until the law goes into effect, the California Attorney General released the long-awaited draft regulations for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

The proposed rules shed light on how the California AG is interpreting and will be enforcing key sections of the CCPA. In the press release announcing the proposed regulations, Attorney General Becerra described CCPA as “[providing] consumers with groundbreaking new rights on the use of their personal information” and added, “It’s time we had control over the use of our personal data.”… Continue Reading

New York’s Breach Law Amendments and New Security Requirements

By David Kessler (US) and Susan Ross (US) on October 1, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Enforcement, General

Although California has recently captured the lion’s share of attention with respect to privacy and security, on October 23, 2019, New York’s amended security breach law goes into effect, and on March 1, 2020, new security safeguards go live (N.Y. S.B. 5575). Anyone with personal information about a New York resident is potentially affected by these far-reaching amendments.

Breach Law Changes

Readers may recall that New York’s security breach notification law (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 899-aa) differs from most states’ law in several ways including (1) using separate definitions of “personal information” and “private information;” and (2) providing factors … Continue Reading

Office of Privacy Commissioner Says It’s Status Quo on Consent Requirements for Data Processing Transfers

By Ann Henderson (CA), Julie Himo (CA), John Cassell (CA) and Alexis Kerr (CA) on October 1, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Data breach, General

On September 23, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) announced, following consultation with stakeholders, that it will maintain the position set out in its 2009 guidelines that an organization’s transfer of personal information to a third party for processing, including a transfer across the Canadian border, is a “use” of that personal information, and not a disclosure that requires separate consent.

This announcement brings at least temporary clarity to an issue that resulted in a tumultuous summer for organizations and the OPC alike as everyone grappled with the potential consequences of the OPC’s June … Continue Reading

And then there were five: CCPA amendments pass legislature

By Jeewon Kim Serrato (US) and Susan Ross (US) on September 17, 2019 Posted in CCPA, Compliance and risk management, Enforcement

Norton Rose Fulbright - Data Protection Report blog

Executive Summary

The wait is over: Only five CCPA amendments made it through the California legislature. The amendments are limited in scope, which means the CCPA will go into effect, largely intact, on January 1, 2020.

The California legislative session for 2019 ended on September 13 and the following five amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) were passed: AB 25, 874, 1146, 1355, and 1564. They now move to the Governor’s desk, where he has 30 days to sign or veto them.… Continue Reading

Deadline extended for compulsory registration on Data Controller registry

By Ekin Inal (TR) on September 6, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management

Obligations

We previously reported that Turkey’s data protection legislation (TDPL) requires data controllers to notify the Turkish DPA of their processing activities. Unless exempt from the requirement, all data controllers (individuals and legal entities) who process personal data in Turkey must be registered with the Turkish DPA’s Register of Data Controllers Information System (VERBİS), prior to processing any personal data.

CCPA: “Wait and see” is not the right approach

By Chris Cwalina (US), David Kessler (US), Steve Roosa (US), Jeewon Kim Serrato (US) and Susan Ross (US) on August 29, 2019 Posted in CCPA, Compliance and risk management

We are seeing companies use many different approaches to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) compliance, but the “wait and see” approach in particular is not advisable.

Companies who want to “wait and see” point to the pending amendments to CCPA that are currently working through the California Senate (as we have previously described—see links below). Others point to the California Attorney General regulations that will be released in draft form in the next few months, which should provide some guidance to implementing CCPA.

Those statements are indeed accurate, as far as they go. However, they neglect the fact that … Continue Reading

ICO joins other data protection authorities in issuing statement on Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra project

By Lara White (UK), Shiv Daddar (UK) and Hemin Hazar (UK) on August 22, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management

On 18 June 2019, Facebook announced plans to launch a new blockchain enabled cryptocurrency called Libra.… Continue Reading

The CNIL publishes new guidelines on cookies and other similar technologies

By Nilofar Moini Shabestari (FR) and Nadège Martin (FR) on August 13, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management

On 4 July 2019, the CNIL published new guidelines on cookies and other similar technologies, repealing its 2013 cookie guidance in order to align its position with the GDPR’s new requirements on consent. These guidelines will be supplemented during the first quarter of 2020 by sectoral recommendations aimed at providing practical guidance to stakeholders on how to collect consent.… Continue Reading

One-Month Countdown to Pass CCPA Amendments Begins

By Jeewon Kim Serrato (US) and Susan Ross (US) on August 12, 2019 Posted in CCPA, Compliance and risk management, Enforcement

On August 12, the California legislature returns after its summer recess. Starting with the Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing today, the legislature will now have approximately a month to continue the markups and send California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) amendments to the Governor’s desk for signature before the September 13 deadline. As previously reported, any amendment that passes from the Senate will likely need to go back to the Assembly since many of them have been marked up significantly by the Senate. Below is a summary of the seven amendments that are moving forward and what they mean for businesses who … Continue Reading

US CLOUD Act and International Privacy

By Marcus Evans (UK), David Kessler (US), Jim Lennon (AU) and Susan Ross (US) on August 1, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Enforcement, General

The U.S. Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (“CLOUD Act”) is apparently the Goldilocks of the privacy world, according to recent statements issued by two international jurisdictions. The CLOUD Act’s requirements are “too hard” for Australian law, according to the Law Council of Australia, but the privacy protections are “too soft” for the European Data Protection Board and European Data Protection Supervisor. The current lack of any executive agreements between the U.S. and another jurisdiction under the CLOUD Act seems to indicate that the U.S. has not yet found a jurisdiction that is “just right” for the CLOUD Act.… Continue Reading

German M&A Deals: Share Deals Remain the Only Secure Way to Transfer All Customer Data

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) on July 8, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management

The German data protection authorities, acting as the German data protection conference (Datenschutzkonferenz), recently published guidance on how to transfer customer data in an asset deal. The guidance runs through various scenarios. In most cases, a bulk transfer of all customer data is not permitted. Further, the guidance makes no mention of, or allowance for, the transfer of marketing permissions which – as these are generally on an opt-in consent basis in Germany – means a buyer cannot rely on the seller’s marketing consents in an asset sale. Therefore, the position in Germany remains that it is highly … Continue Reading

“What’s cooking” in Sacramento: CCPA’s “employee exception” bill is amended; “publicly available information” exception is broadened, and consumer access rights are clarified

By Jeewon Kim Serrato (US) and Susan Ross (US) on July 3, 2019 Posted in CCPA, Compliance and risk management

This is the Data Protection Report’s eleventh blog post in a series of CCPA blog posts. Stay tuned for additional posts on the CCPA.

As America prepares for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the California legislature continues to work on amending the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), as it races to get modifications passed through the state legislature before it adjourns for the 2019 calendar year. On June 28, one of those bills, AB 25, the “employee exception” bill was significantly amended by the Senate Judiciary Committee and appears to move forward, despite a recent political setback last month … Continue Reading

NT Analyzer Blog Series: Why So Many Cookie Policies Are Broken, Part I – HTML5 LocalStorage

By Steve Roosa (US) on June 25, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Data breach, NT Analyzer Blog Series

Cookies Are One Piece of a Larger Puzzle

There has been an odd preoccupation with cookies for some time now—to the exclusion of other forms of browser tracking, some of which are much more flexible and more robust in their data collection capabilities than cookies. Despite this fact, these other, non-cookie tracking technologies are often not referenced in privacy policies and cookie policies, even though they are used to “store information” and / or “gain access to information stored in the terminal equipment” for purposes of the ePrivacy Directive and will presumably qualify as personal information under the CCPA as … Continue Reading