Category: European Data Protection

Swiss Data Protection Commissioner: “Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield not providing adequate level of Data Protection”

28. September 2020

Following the recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) the Swiss Data Protection Commissioner (“EDÖB”) published a statement concerning the level of Data Protection of Data Transfers under the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield. The “Schrems II” decision by the CJEU is not legally binding in the Switzerland because Switzerland is neither a EU nor a EEA country. But as the EDÖB and the Joint European Data Protection Authorities work closely together, the decision has first implications for Swiss data exporters.

In accordance with Swiss Data Protection law (Art. 7 VDSG), the Swiss Data Protection Commissioner maintains a publicly accessible list of countries assessing the level of Data Protection guaranteed by these countries. This list shall serve Swiss data exporters as a guidance for their data exporting activities and acts as a rebuttable presumption. EU and EEA countries have continuously been listed in the first column of the list because they are regarded to provide an adequate level of Data Protection. The U.S. has been listed in the second column as a country providing “adequate protection under certain conditions”, which meant a certification of U.S. data importers under the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield.

Subsequent to the CJEU ruling, the EDÖB decided to list the U.S. in the third column as a country providing “inadequate protection”, thereby also acting on his past annual reviews of the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield. In his reviews, the EDÖB already criticised that data subjects in Switzerland lack access to the courts in the U.S. on account of Data Protection violations and that the Ombudsman-mechanism is ineffective in this regard.

Lastly, the EDÖB pointed out that the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield remains in effect since there has not been a decision by Swiss courts comparable to the CJEU decision and that his assessment has the status of a recommendation. However, the EDÖB advises Swiss data exporters to always make a risk assessment when transferring Personal Data to countries with “inadequate protection” and possibly to apply technical measures (e.g. BYOK encryption) in order to protect the data from access by foreign intelligence services.

EU looking to increase Enforcement Powers over Tech Giants

24. September 2020

In an interview with The Financial Times on Sunday, EU-Commissioner Thierry Breton stated that the European Union is considering plans to increase its enforcement powers regarding tech giants.

This empowerment is supposed to include punitive measures such as forcing tech firms to break off and sell their EU operations if the dominance on the market becomes too large. It is further considered to enable the EU to be able to boot tech companies from the EU single market entirely. Breton stated these measures would of course only be used in extreme circumstances, but did not elaborate on what would qualify as extreme.

“There is a feeling from end-users of these platforms that they are too big to care,” Thierry Breton told The Financial Times. In the interview, he compared tech giants’ market power to the big banks before the financial crisis. “We need better supervision for these big platforms, as we had again in the banking system,” he stated.

In addition, the European Union is considering a rating system, in which companies would be given scores in different categories such as tax compliance, taking action against illegal content, etc. However, Breton said that it is not the intend to make companies liable for their users’ content.

Breton further said that the first drafts of the new law will be ready by the end of the year.

Once the final draft is in place, it will require approval both by the European Parliament as well as the European Council, before it can be enacted.

Privacy Activist Schrems unleashes 101 Complaints

21. September 2020

Lawyer and privacy activist Maximilian Schrems has become known for his legal actions leading to the invalidation of “Safe Harbor” in 2015 and of the “EU-U.S. Privacy Shield” this year (we reported). Following the landmark court decision on the “EU-U.S. Privacy Shield”, Schrems recently announced on the website of his NGO “noyb” (non-of-your-business) that he has filed 101 complaints against 101 European companies in 30 different EU and EEA countries with the responsible Data Protection Authorities. Schrems exercised the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority that every data subject has if he or she considers that the processing of personal data relating to him or her infringes the Regulation, pursuant to Art. 77 GDPR.

The complaints concern the companies’ continued use of Google Analytics and Facebook Connect that transfer personal data about each website visitor (at least IP-address and Cookie data) to Google and Facebook which reside in the United States and fall under U.S. surveillance laws, such as FISA 702. Schrems also published a list of the 101 companies which include Sky Deutschland, the University of Luxembourg and the Cyprus Football Association. With his symbolic action against 101 companies, Schrems wanted to point to the widespread inactivity among many companies that still do not take the data protection rights of individuals seriously despite the recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

In response, the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) has set up a “task force” to handle complaints against European companies using Google Analytics and Facebook services. The taskforce shall analyse the matter and ensure a close cooperation among the members of the Board which consists of all European supervisory authorities as well as the European Data Protection Supervisor.

Irish DPC to assess TikTok’s plans for opening Data Centre in Ireland

13. August 2020

The short video app TikTok is planning to establish a data centre in Ireland under the One Stop Shop (OSS) data processing mechanism, the Irish Data Commission has stated.

However, the company needs to first be assessed to determine if they meet the requirements of the OSS.

The OSS rules, introduced under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) rules, mean companies can make the Irish Data Protection Commission the lead supervisory authority, if they meet the criteria, and would not have to deal with regulators in each of the 28 EU member states but could be monitored by a lead regulator in one state. This would benefit the company in the case that if something happens, it would be one investigation, one decision and one appeal, rather than one for each country affected.

These plans come at a time when the popular app is facing some criticism, however. Not only is TikTok on the verge of being banned in the United States, a lot of doubts in regard to their handling of user data have surfaced in the past few months.

Last week in Beijing, the Beijing Internet Court ruled against TikTok’s owner Tencent Holdings in cases alleging the misuse of user data. The data was shared without consent between the WeRead and WeChat apps, violating the users’ privacy.

The move to establish a data centre in Ireland “will create hundreds of new jobs and play a key role in further strengthening the safeguarding and protection of TikTok user data with a state of the art physical and network security defense system planned around this new operation,“ stated Global Chief Information Security Officer of the company, Roland Cloutier.

Following the moves of big tech giants of recent years, TikTok plans to open the data centre by the year 2022. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner stated that the examination for the OSS mechanism is currently underway.

CJEU judges the EU-US Privacy Shield invalid

16. July 2020

On June 16th, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has declared the invalidity of Decision 2016/1250, therefore rendering protection granted to data transfers under the EU-US Privacy Shield inadequate.

The background

The case originated in a complaint of Mr. Max Schrems against Facebook Ireland regarding the transfer of his personal data as a Facebook user to Facebook Inc., situated in the USA, for further processing. Mr. Schrems lodged a complaint with the Irish supervisory authority seeking to prohibit those transfers. He claimed that the law and practices in the United States do not offer sufficient protection against access by the public authorities to the data transferred to the USA. That complaint was rejected on the ground that, in Decision 2000/5205, the Safe Harbour Decision, the Commission had found that the United States ensured an adequate level of protection. In a judgment delivered on October 6th, 2015, the CJEU, to which the High Court of Ireland had referred questions for a preliminary ruling, declared that decision invalid, resulting in the Schrems I judgment.

Today’s judgement in the Schrems II case came from the request of the Irish High Court to Mr. Schrems to reformulate his initial complaint, seeing as the Safe Harbour Agreement had been deemed inadequate. In the following, Mr. Schrems reformulated his complaint, and claimed that the United States does not offer sufficient protection of data transferred to that country. He seeks the suspension of future transfers of his personal data from the EU to the United States, which Facebook Ireland now carries out pursuant to the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) set out in the Annex to Decision 2010/87. After the initiation of those proceedings, the Commission adopted Decision 2016/1250 on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield.

In its request for a preliminary ruling, the referring court asked the CJEU whether the GDPR applies to transfers of personal data pursuant to the SCCs, what level of protection is required by the GDPR in connection with such a transfer, and what obligations are incumbent on supervisory authorities in those circumstances. The High Court of Ireland also raised the question of the validity of both decisions,  Decision 2010/87 and  Decision 2016/1250.

Judgement in regard to SCCs

In its judgements, the CJEU has stated that it had, after examination of the SCCs in light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, found nothing that affected the validity of the SCCs and Decision 2010/87.

With regards to the transfer of personal data to third countries, the CJEU claims that the requirements for such purposes set out by the GDPR concerning appropriate safeguards, enforceable rights and effective legal measures must be interpreted in such a way that data subjects whose personal data is transferred into a third country must be afforded a level of protection essentially similar to the level of protection granted within the European Union by the GDPR.

Data Protection Authorities must, unless an adequacy decision has been ruled by the Commission, be required to suspend or prohibit a transfer of personal data to a third country which does not meet these requirements.

The CJEU holds that the SCCs are still effective mechanisms that make it possible to ensure compliance with a level of protection required by the European Union. In that regard the CJEU points out that this imposes an obligation on the data exporter and the recipient of the data to verify, prior to any transfer, whether that level of protection is respected in the third country concerned, and to suspend the transfer of the personal data if it is not.

Judgement in regard to the EU-US Privacy Shield

The CJEU, after thorough examination, concluded that the EU-US Privacy Shield is not adequate protection for transfers to the USA.

This result comes from the fact that the far-reaching US surveillance laws are in conflict with EU fundamental rights. The USA limits most of its protections of personal data from governmental surveillance to US citizen, but does not extend that protection to the personal data of citizens of other countries.

In essence, the limitations on the protection of personal data arising from the domestic law of the USA on the access and use by US public authorities of such data transferred from the European Union are not restricted in a way that satisfies requirements that are equivalent to those required under EU law, which were mentioned in regards to SCCs above. By the principle of proportionality, the surveillance programmes based on those provisions are not limited to what is strictly necessary.

Unless an empowerment and independence of the Ombudsperson takes place, which would give the competence to adopt decisions which are binding on US intelligence services, there are no substantial cause of actions for data subjects before a body which gives legal guarantees in the way that is required by European law for transfers to be equivalent in protection.

Assessment

Overall, the CJEU states that necessary data transfers are still able to continue under Article 49 of the GDPR. However, the provision’s interpretation is restrictive, leaving most companies with data transfers to the USA which are now considered illegal.

Due to the requirements of adequate protection even when relying on the validated SCCs, transfers under such circumstances may also be found unlawful due to the local intelligence laws in the USA, which do not uphold the requirements necessary by European law.

Overall, it is a clear statement of the necessity of reforms of the US intelligence laws, which have to create adequate protections to be able to guarantee the same level of data protection as the European Union, if they want to continue data trades and data transfers necessary for processing.

What does this mean for you?

  • If your business has a EU-US Privacy Shield certification, and uses such for legitimization of data transfers within a group of companies, you should push towards the use of the European Standard Contractual Clauses within that corporate group.
  • If you are employing service providers which rely on the EU-US Privacy Shield certification, you should also push for the use of Standard Contractual Clauses, or base the data transfer on a different solution for an adequate level of data protection.

CIPL submits DSR “White Paper” to the EDPB as input for future Guidelines

The Centre for Information Policy Leadership (“CIPL”) at Hunton Andrews Kurth submitted its White Paper on Data Subject Rights (DSR) on July 8th, 2020, as input for the European Data Protection Board for future Guidelines on the subject.

The White Paper examines the effectiveness of the DSRs by keeping in mind the interpretation in the context of today’s data driven economy. It puts forth that the Guidelines should take into account new business models, data-driven processes and the data economy as well as the digitalisation of society.

In that aspect, the Paper offers suggestions for the EDPB to consider and reflect upon. Some few of the main subjects the Paper requests the Guidelines to touch on are:

  • Clarification of the requirements governing verification of the identity of individuals submitting DSR requests
  • Determination that the one-month deadline for responding to a DSR request will run from the point at which the request’s scope is clear and the identity of the requestor has been verified, additionally that extensions to the deadline may be justified in certain circumstances, e.g. where the controller receives an unusually high volume of DSR requests, etc.
  • Recognition that compelling interests of the organization, third-parties or society may limit DSR requests;
  • Limitations on excessive, unfounded or abusive requests from Data Subjects which are intended to disrupt the business;
  • Declaration of a proportionate approach in responding to DSR requests, particularly with regards to the cost to the organization.

Furthermore, the White Paper highlights the necessity to change the level of a DPO’s responsibility in regards to DSRs, dividing it across different team rather than making the DPO solely responsible for the DSR requests.

In addition, the Paper demands the EDPB to establish a better harmonization of the application of the DSRs across the European Union, which comes from differences in Guidelines made by the different Data Protection Authorities (DPAs). The EDPB should have in its interest to establish common ground for the handling of DSRs and the related requests, as well as the handling of infringements in the matter by DPAs.

The Paper stems from the EDPB stakeholders’ event on DSR in Brussels on November 4, 2019, and was drafted to visualize certain issues on the matter to the EDPB which have crystalized themselves in the two years since the application of the GDPR.

EU Commission highlights necessary preparations for end of Brexit transitioning period

14. July 2020

The European Commission has published a communication on July 9th, 2020, in order to highlight the main areas of change in view of the upcoming end of the transitional Brexit period before January 1st, 2021.

The communication aims to facilitate readiness and preparations for citizens, businesses and stockholders once the UK leaves the European Union. The European Commission states that readiness for these broad and far reaching changes is key, especially since they will take place regardless of the outcome of the negotiations between the UK and the EU.

The communication breaches subjects such as trade in goods, trade in services, energy, travelling and tourism, mobility and social security coordination, company law and civil law, intellectual property, data transfers and protection and international agreements of the EU.

The communication also includes advice in each of those areas and subjects for businesses to be able to start preparations in order to cope with the changes ahead.

With a view on data protection, the European Commission’s communication states that data transfers can continue after January 1st, 2021, however they will have to comply with EU rules and regulations for Third Country Transfers as put forth by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Commission specifies the tools set out in Chapter V of the GDPR, which include Binding Corporate Rules, Standard Contractual Clauses, as well as an Adequacy Decision by the European Commission. The communication states that the EU will try its best to conclude the assessment of the UK regime by the end of 2020, in order to give at least some form of security for data transfers after the transitional period ends. On sides of the United Kingdom, the Adequacy of the European union is guaranteed until 2024.

The advice of the European Commission emphasizes compliancy with the GDPR as the best preparation for the Brexit, but lacks security as to what will happen on January 1st, 2021, especially with regards to the future applicable laws.

Transatlantic Data Transfers in light of the Two Year Anniversary of GDPR Application

7. July 2020

In the last two years since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect on May 25, 2018, it has received an overall positive feedback and structured the data protection culture not only in the European Union, but has set an example for international privacy standards.

However, especially from the American side of the world, criticism has been constant. Different principles are a prerequisite for different opinions and priorities, and the effort to bring European data protection standards and American personal data business together has been a challenge on both sides.

One of the main criticisms coming from the US government is the increasing obstacles the GDPR poses in case of cybercrime investigations and law enforcement. Not only the restrictive implications of the GDPR are an issue, but also the divergent interpretations due to national adaptations of the GDPR are seen as a problem by government officials.

In the cases of cybercrime, the main issue for the US critics is the now less effective database of domain name owners, WHOIS. The online directory, which was created in the 1970s, is an important tool for law enforcement combatting cybercrime. Before the GDPR came into effect in 2018, the request for information on domain owners was straightforward. Now, due to the restrictions of the GDPR, this process has been made long and tedious.

But fighting cybercrime is not the only tension between the EU and the USA concerning data protection. In a judgement in the Schrems II case, expected for July 16, 2020, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is expected to take a stance on transatlantic data transfers and the current Privacy Shield, which is the basis for the EU-US dataflows under adequate data protection standards. If the Privacy Shield is deemed insufficient protection, it will have a major effect on EU-US business transactions.

However, these are issues that the European Commission (EC) is very aware of. In their communication concerning the two-year review of the GDPR, the Commission stated that they are planning to balance out diverging and fragmented interpretations of the GDPR on national levels and find a common data protection culture within Europe.

In addition, the restrictions the GDPR poses to law enforcement are another point the European Commission knows it needs to fix. The plan for the future is a bilateral and multilateral framework that can allow for simple requests to share data for law enforcement purposes and avoid conflicts of law, while keeping data protection safeguards intact.

The upcoming judgement of the ECJ is seen with watchful eyes by the Commission, and will be incorporated in their upcoming adequacy decisions and re-evaluations, as well as their development of a modern international transfer toolbox, which includes a modernized version of the standard contractual clauses.

Overall, the two-year mark of the existence of the GDPR is seen more as a success, despite the clear areas for future improvement. One of the big challenges in transatlantic data transfers ahead is without a doubt the outcome of the judgement in the Schrems case in mid-July, the implications of which are, at this point in time, not yet able to be defined.

German State Data Protection Commissioner imposes 1.2 million € GDPR fine

1. July 2020

The German State Data Protection Commissioner of Baden-Württemberg (“LfDI Ba-Wü”)  imposed a GDPR fine of 1.240.000€ on the German statutory health insurance provider AOK Baden-Württemberg (“AOK”). The fine was a result of the health insurance’s lack of technical and organisational measures pursuant to Art. 32 GDPR. It is the highest fine the LfDI Ba-Wü has ever imposed.

Between 2015 and 2019 the AOK organised lotteries on various occasions and collected personal data of the participants, including their contact details and current health insurance affiliations. The AOK wanted to use the data of the lottery participants for advertising purposes, insofar as the participants gave their consent to this. To ensure the security of processing, the AOK implemented internal guidelines and data protection training of their staff as technical and organisatioal measures. However, these measures were not sufficient to comply with Art. 32 GDPR because AOK staff used the personal data of more than 500 lottery participants for advertising purposes without their prior consent.

Following the investigation of the LfDI Ba-Wü, the AOK immediately stopped all marketing activities in order to revise their internal policies and processes against the GDPR. The LfDI Ba-Wü explained that in determining the extent of the fine, it considered the following mitigating factors:

  • the cooperation of the AOK with the Data Protection Authority,
  • the fact that the AOK as a statutory health insurance provider is an important part of the German healthcare system, and
  • the burdens of the current Corona-Pandemic on the healthcare system.

Finally, the Commissioner pointed out that technical and organisational measures must be regularly adjusted to the actual conditions of each processing activity, in order to ensure an adequate level of data protection in the long term.

EDPB releases new official register of Art. 60 GDPR decisions

29. June 2020

On 25 June 2020, the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) released a new register of final decisions by national European Data Protection Authorities (Supervisory Authorities) cooperating with one another pursuant to Art. 60 GDPR. The register provides access to the decisions themselves, summaries of the decisions in English, and information on the identity of the cooperating Lead Supervisory Authority and Concerned Supervisory Authorities.

The GDPR postulates that Supervisory Authorities have to cooperate in potential cases of GDPR violations that include cross-border data processing activities. During this cooperation, the Lead Supervisory Authority will be in charge of preparing the draft decision and involving the Concerned Supervisory Authorities, and will act as the sole interlocutor of the Controller or Processor (“One-Stop-Shop”-Principle), Art. 56 and Art. 60 GDPR.

To date, the new EDPB register contains 110 final decisions. The EDPB states in its announcement that ‘the register will be valuable to data protection practitioners who will gain access to information showcasing how SAs work together to enforce the GDPR in practice.’

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