Topic: General

Where Data Meets IP

Data Protection Report - Norton Rose Fulbright

How do you balance sharing and protecting your business’ data? Unlike tangible assets, which can be protected primarily through physical means, intangible assets such as data require additional considerations. One key strategy to protect your business’ data is to characterize, and protect, that data as intellectual property. Data as IP Copyright Original compilations of data … Continue reading

The UK Government unveils its post-Brexit plans to shake up data protection laws

By Lara White (UK), Marcus Evans (UK) and Isabella Martinez-Sistac Orozco on August 27, 2021 Posted in General, Privacy law, Regulatory response

On 26 August 2021, in a move that puts it on a potential collision course with the EU, the UK Government made a number of announcements relating to the future of the UK’s data protection regime, with the stated intention of “seizing the opportunity” by “developing a world leading data policy that will deliver a … Continue reading

Ontario moves towards introducing new privacy law

By Imran Ahmad (CA) and Liana Di Giorgio (CA) on August 24, 2021 Posted in General, PHIPA, PIPEDA, Privacy law

Given global trends in the development of privacy laws and enforcement, Canada and several provinces are looking at modernizing their respective privacy regimes. Ontario’s new proposed privacy law, which would govern commercial activities more broadly than current legislation (i.e., our federal legislation, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and Ontario’s health privacy … Continue reading

China’s evolving data laws: PIPL likely to be passed soon

By Anna Gamvros and Lianying Wang (CN) on August 5, 2021 Posted in Cybersecurity, General

Norton Rose Fulbright - Data Protection Report blog

China’s much anticipated Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) is very likely to pass this month after the conclusion of the 30th meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which is to be held in Beijing on 17-20 August. This follows the enactment earlier this year of the Data Security Law (DSL), which … Continue reading

Subject Access Request: Germany’s highest court widens the scope of data subject access requests in Germany

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Natalia Filkina (DE) on July 28, 2021 Posted in General, Regulatory response

Germany’s highest civil court, the Federal Court Of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, the FCJ), has just published a decision specifying the scope of data subject access requests (DSARs). The FCJ held that Article 15 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has a broader scope than previously understood in Germany. Pursuant to the court’s decision, Article 15 … Continue reading

Hong Kong: Bill to amend the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance to combat doxxing acts was gazetted today

By Anna Gamvros, Ruby Kwok (HK) and Edward Yau (HK) on July 15, 2021 Posted in General

The Personal Data (Privacy) (Amendment) Bill 2021 (the Bill) was gazetted today, 16 July 2021. The Bill aims to combat doxxing acts through (i) criminalisation of doxxing acts; (ii) empowering the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data to conduct criminal investigation and institute prosecution for doxxing cases; and (iii) conferring on the Commissioner statutory powers to … Continue reading

EDPB cautiously welcomes UK adequacy finding

By Lara White (UK) and Janine Regan (UK) on April 16, 2021 Posted in General, Regulatory response

Yesterday, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published its opinion on the European Commission’s draft Decision that the UK ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data (the Opinion). The Opinion was adopted by the EDPB on 13 April 2021, a couple of days before the Opinion’s official publication on 15 April 2021. The … Continue reading

EU Commission draft UK Data Protection Adequacy Decision published

By Marcus Evans (UK) and Shiv Daddar (UK) on February 19, 2021 Posted in Enforcement, General, Regulatory response

Following nine months of assessment of the UK’s data protection laws (including the rules on access to data by public authorities), the European Commission has today published its draft decision on the adequate protection of personal data by the United Kingdom. The draft decision can be found here. The draft decision is welcome news to … Continue reading

101 Problems and Schrems Ain’t One

By Steve Roosa (US) and Daniel Rosenzweig (US) on September 29, 2020 Posted in General

Eureka! After burning the midnight oil, we’ve built an automated scanner to identify and sort the Schrems II risk of data flows for further legal handling. The scanner uses more than 20 different data points derived from network metadata to scan and classify data flows based on mass surveillance risk under the NSA’s so-called “Upstream” … Continue reading

Algorithmic Decision-making and the UK ICO’s Guidance on AI

By Magdalene Lie (UK) on September 8, 2020 Posted in General, Regulatory response

Algorithmic decision-making has been in the news of late. From Ofqual’s downgrading of students’ A-level results[1] to the complaint lodged by None of Your Business’ against the credit rating agency CRIF for failing (amongst other things) to be transparent about the reasons why a particular applicant had been given a negative rating[2]. We have been … Continue reading

Key takeaways for the private sector from The Bridges v South Wales police facial recognition case

By Lara White (UK) and Janine Regan (UK) on August 27, 2020 Posted in General

On 11 August 2020, the Court of Appeal (CA) handed down its judgement in the case of R (on the application of Edward BRIDGES) v The Chief Constable of South Wales Police. The court found that the use of automated facial recognition technology (AFT) by South Wales Police (SWP) was unlawful and did not comply … Continue reading

An “enhanced” Privacy Shield is being negotiated – third time a charm?

By Lara White (UK) and Janine Regan (UK) on August 13, 2020 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Data Transfer, Enforcement, General

On 10 August, the European Commission and the US Department of Commerce confirmed that talks have begun between the EU and US for an “enhanced” Privacy Shield. This will be the third attempt to revise this framework, following the invalidation of Safe Harbor in 2015 and Privacy Shield in July 2020. Third time a charm? … Continue reading

Schrems II landmark ruling: Privacy Shield is invalid, Standard Contractual Clauses are valid but court puts obligations on parties and authorities

By Marcus Evans (UK), Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Janine Regan (UK) on July 16, 2020 Posted in Data breach, Enforcement, General, Regulatory response

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has today published its decision in the landmark case, known as Schrems II. While Privacy Shield has been completely invalidated, the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) remain valid, but the court has emphasised obligations on the parties to the SCCs and Data Protection Authorities which have the … Continue reading

Singapore’s Public Consultation on proposed changes to the Singapore Personal Data Protection Act

By Wilson Ang (SG), Stella Cramer (SG), Jessica Paulin (SG) and Jeremy Lua (SG) on May 21, 2020 Posted in General

On 14 May 2020, the Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and the Personal Data Protection Commission of Singapore (PDPC) announced a public consultation (the Public Consultation) on the draft Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Bill (the Draft Bill) and related amendments to the Spam Control Act (SCA). The Public Consultation will take place from … Continue reading

Contact tracing apps: A new world for data privacy

By Anna Gamvros and Steven Hadwin (UK) on May 13, 2020 Posted in General

May 12, 2020 Norton Rose Fulbright today launched its survey analysing regulatory and policy issues applicable to COVID-19 contact tracing and related tracking technology across 18 jurisdictions. The global survey explores key issues across Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Indonesia, Russia, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, The Netherlands, Turkey, UAE, UK and … Continue reading

How contact tracing apps in Asia are being used to fight COVID-19 – is the reward worth the risk?

By Anna Gamvros and Libby Ryan (HK) on April 24, 2020 Posted in General

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 critical to containing the spread of the virus, such as contact tracing. Contact tracing applications … Continue reading

NYDFS Requires COVID-19 Plans by April 9

By Susan Ross (US) and Kathleen Scott (US) on April 2, 2020 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Dispute resolution and litigation, Enforcement, General

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, … Continue reading

Singapore Updates Its Model Artificial Intelligence Governance Framework

By Stella Cramer (SG), Wilson Ang (SG), Jessica Paulin (SG) and Jeremy Lua (SG) on February 4, 2020 Posted in General

On 21 January 2020 at a meeting at the World Economic Forum, the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) and Infocommunications Media Development Authority (IMDA) released the second edition of its Model Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) Governance Framework (“Model Framework”).… Continue reading

Data Privacy Day 2020 – Canadian Privacy Law Developments on the Horizon

By Julie Himo (CA), Alexis Kerr (CA), John Cassell (CA) and Ann Henderson (CA) on January 27, 2020 Posted in Cybersecurity, Data breach, General

Happy Data Privacy Day! Data Privacy Day represents a timely opportunity to highlight anticipated significant developments in Canadian privacy law in 2020 that we are monitoring following two major developments from the Government of Canada.… 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 … Continue reading

Covert monitoring in the workplace – impact on an employee’s privacy

By Amanda Sanders (UK) on November 8, 2019 Posted in Dispute resolution and litigation, General

The Grand Chamber of the ECHR held that Spanish shop workers’ right to privacy under Article 8(1) of the ECHR was not violated when their employer obtained evidence of theft from covert CCTV footage of the employees.… Continue reading

First Data Access Agreement under the CLOUD Act signed by UK and US

By David Kessler (US) and Susan Ross (US) on October 10, 2019 Posted in General

On 3 October 2019, the UK and US governments signed the first bilateral Data Access Agreement (the Agreement) under the US Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act 2018 (CLOUD Act) and the UK Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Act 2019.… 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 … Continue reading