Category: Privacy policy
3. January 2020
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) came into effect on January 1, 2020 and will be the first step in the United States in regulating data privacy on the Internet. Currently, the US does not have a federal-level general consumer data privacy law that is comparable to that of the privacy laws in EU countries or even the supranational European GDPR.
But now, several other US States have taken inspiration from the CCPA and are in the process of bringing forth their own state legislation on consumer privacy protections on the Internet, including
- The Massachusetts Data Privacy Law “S-120“,
- The New York Privacy Act “S5642“,
- The Hawaii Consumer Privacy Protection Act “SB 418“,
- The Maryland Online Consumer Protection Act “SB 613“, and
- The North Dakota Bill “HB 1485“.
Like the CCPA, most of these new privacy laws have a broad definition of the term “Personal Information” and are aimed at protecting consumer data by strenghtening consumer rights.
However, the various law proposals differ in the scope of the consumer rights. All of them grant consumers the ‘right to access’ their data held by businesses. There will also be a ‘right to delete’ in most of these states, but only some give consumers a private ‘right of action’ for violations.
There are other differences with regards to the businesses that will be covered by the privacy laws. In some states, the proposed laws will apply to all businesses, while in other states the laws will only apply to businesses with yearly revenues of over 10 or 25 Million US-Dollars.
As more US states are beginning to introduce privacy laws, there is an increasing possiblity of a federal US privacy law in the near future. Proposals from several members of Congress already exist (Congresswomen Eshoo and Lofgren’s Proposal and Senators Cantwell/Schatz/Klobuchar/Markey’s Proposal and Senator Wicker’s Proposal).
12. December 2019
The new update of the Indian Personal Data Protection Bill is part of India’s broader efforts to tightly control the flow of personal data.
The bill’s latest version enpowers the government to ask companies to provide anonymized personal data, as well as other non-personal data in order to help to deliver governmental services and privacy policies. The draft defines “personal data” as information that can help to identify a person and also has characteristics, traits and any other features of a person’s identity. “Sensitive personal data” also includes financial and biometric data. According to the draft, such “sensitive” data can be transferred outside India for processing, but must be stored locally.
Furthermore, social media platforms will be required to offer a mechanism for users to prove their identities and display a verification sign publicly. Such requirements would raise a host of technical issues for companies such as Facebook and WhatsApp.
As a result, the new bill could affect the way companies process, store and transfer Indian consumers’ data. Therefore, it could cause some difficulties for top technology companies.
24. June 2019
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had taken action against several companies that pretended to be compliant with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and other international privacy agreements.
According to the FTC, SecureTest, Inc., a background screening company, has falsely claimed on its website to have participated in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield. These framework agreements allow companies to transfer consumer data from member states of the European Union and Switzerland to the United States in accordance with EU or Swiss law.
In September 2017, the company applied to the U.S. Department of Commerce for Privacy Shield certification. However, it did not take the necessary steps to be certified as compliant with the framework agreements.
Following the FTC’s complaint, the FTC and SecureTest, Inc. have proposed a settlement agreement. This proposal includes a prohibition for SecureTest to misrepresent its participation in any privacy or security program sponsored by any government or self-regulatory or standardization organization. The proposed agreement will be published in the Federal Register and subject to public comment for 30 days. Afterwards the FTC will make a determination regarding whether to make the proposed consent order final.
The FTC has also sent warning letters to 13 companies that falsely claimed to participate in the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor and the U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbor frameworks, which were replaced in 2016 by the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield frameworks. The FTC asked companies to remove from their websites, privacy policies or other public documents any statements claiming to participate in a safe harbor agreement. If the companies fail to take action within 30 days, the FTC warned that it would take appropriate legal action.
The FTC also sent warning letters with the same request to two companies that falsely claimed in their privacy policies that they were participants in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) system. The APEC CBPR system is an initiative to improve the protection of consumer data moving between APEC member countries through a voluntary but enforceable code of conduct implemented by participating companies. To become a certified participant, a designated third party, known as an APEC-approved Accountability Agent, must verify and confirm that the company meets the requirements of the CBPR program.
12. February 2019
After TechCrunch initiated investigations that revealed that numerous apps were recording screen usage, Apple called on app developers to remove or at least disclose the screen recording code.
TechCrunch’s investigation revealed that many large companies commission Glassbox, a customer experience analytics firm, to be able to view their users’ screens and thus follow and track keyboard entries and understand in which way the user uses the app. It turned out that during the replay of the session some fields that should have been masked were not masked, so that certain sensitive data, like passport numbers and credit card numbers, could be seen. Furthermore, none of the apps examined informed their users that the screen was being recorded while using the app. Therefore, no specific consent was obtained nor was any reference made to screen recording in the apps’ privacy policy.
Based on these findings, Apple immediately asked the app developers to remove or properly disclose the analytics code that enables them to record screen usage. Apples App Store Review Guidelines require that apps request explicit user consent and provide a clear visual indication when recording, logging, or otherwise making a record of user activity. In addition, Apple expressly prohibits the covert recording without the consent of the app users.
According to TechCrunch, Apple has already pointed out to some app developers that they have broken Apple’s rules. One was even explicitly asked to remove the code from the app, pointing to the Apple Store Guidelines. The developer was given less than a day to do so. Otherwise, Apple would remove the app from the App Store.
19. December 2018
As it is widely known these days, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force earlier this year to standardize data protection regulation in the EU. This has now lead to the fact that Google will update the company’s terms of service and privacy policy to be compliant with the GDPR.
The company started to notify the countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland in regard to some upcoming changes. They will come into effect on January 22, 2019.
The most important update, also legally, is the change of the data controller. The Google Ireland Limited will become the so called “data controller” who is responsible for the information of European and Swiss users . Therefore, Google Ireland Limited will be in charge to respond to request from users and to ensure compliance with the GDPR. At present, these services are provided by Google LLC, based in the U.S.
For website operators this means that they might also have to adapt their privacy policy accordingly. This is the case, for example, if Google Analytics is used.
Furthermore, there are no changes in regard to the current settings and services.
21. March 2018
A trading deal between two companies often includes a high number of coincidentally transferred personal data. From the 25th May 2018 on the new GDPR regulates the data flow in the European Economic Area (EEA) that consists of all the members of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The future status of Great Britain will be primarily the status of a third country.
Otherwise, business relationships to companies from non-EU or EEA States (like the USA, China, …) cannot guarantee the data protection standard of the GDPR automatically. Especially since the overruling of the “safe-harbour” agreement of the EU with the USA by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), every company that transfers data over the Atlantic is obligated to fulfil the data protection by itself. The European Commission (EC) recommends in its communication from the 10th January 2017 the use of so-called standard contractual clauses (SCC) or binding corporate rules (BCR), when an EU-based company transfers personal data to a non-EU based company or non-EU based entity of its corporate group.
This has a wide impact to the daily trade deals that are made all over Europe with third country companies. The EU recommends the data protection going hand in hand with the trading deals, to ensure the relatively high data protection level, which is based on Article 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Especially until the ePrivacy-Regulation of the EU is not in force, every company has to ensure the standard of the GDPR by implementing a privacy policy, in which transfers of data to a third country has to be mentioned.
In conclusion, a company that trades with third country companies needs to enter a special data protection contract with the trading partner and needs to inform its clients by its privacy policy.
17. August 2017
The Russian data protection authority Roskomnadzor published guidelines for data operators on the drafting of privacy policies on July 31.
Russian data operators must adopt a privacy policy to comply with Russian data protection law. The policy must describe how they process of personal data. This policy shall be published online if personal data is collected online. In case of collecting personal data offline an unrestricted access to the policy has to be guaranteed.
The policy shall be detailed so that data subjects are aware of all potential actions.
According to the guidance the policy must contain in general the following information:
- main purpose of the policy and definitions used in the policy
- main rights and obligations of the data operator and data subjects,
- purposes for personal data processing,
- legal grounds for personal data processing
- volume and categories of personal data processed. For each category of data subjects, Roskomnadzor recommends that a company list all the personal data it collects and processes tied to specific purposes and indicate all cases of processing special categories of personal data or biometric data,
- procedures and conditions for personal data processing,
- procedures for updating, correcting, deleting, or destroying personal data and
- procedures for responding to data subjects’ requests.
In addition the guideline regulates the case of sharing personal data with third parties. The data operator has to explain the taken measures to protect personal data and beside the purpose of sharing, the volume of personal data to be transferred, the data use restrictions and security measures. Furthermore the name and the address of the the third party need to be published in the policy.
Finally it shall be mentioned that the guidance is recommendatory nature and non-binding. Nonetheless data operators should strongly take these recommendations into account if they develop new privacy policies to be compliant with the Personal Data Law.
14. February 2017
Last week Google contacted millions of app developers informing them about their apps’ violation of Google’s User Data policy.
According to this policy, apps which handle personal or sensitive user data must post a privacy policy in the designated field in the Play Developer Console, as well as within the app itself and handle the user data securely, for example by using cryptography for transmitting them.
Millions of apps handling with personal data do not have a privacy policy and thus do not contribute to providing a clear and transparent experience for Play Store users. Google set a time limit of 5 weeks, until March 15 this year for the apps to comply with the User Data policy. Either the developers shall include a link to a valid privacy policy or remove any requests for sensitive permissions or user data. Otherwise Google might limit the visibility of those apps or even remove them from its Google Play Store.
16. January 2017
As a recent study shows (published by French research group Eleas in October), more than a third of French workers use their devices everyday in order to work out-of-hours.
Despite the fact that checking professional emails after work gives employees a sort of autonomy and flexibility speaking of working outside the office mode, such a habit may also lead to the „info-obesity“ (according to a report submitted in September 2015 by labour minister Myriam El Khomri).
Computing and work-life balance expert Anna Cox (University of College London – UCL) says: “Some of the challenges that come with flexibility are managing those boundaries between work and home and being able to say ‘actually I am not working now’.
From 1st of January therefore, French companies should guarantee a „right to disconnect“ to their employees, which means that the new employment law has just entered into force. Since then, all the organisations that employ over 50 workers will be obliged to define employees „disconection from technology“ rights.
Its aim is to minimise an overuse of digital devices by employees after their working hours, which lately surged in unpaid overtime.
To diminish the problem, some steps have already been taken, among which there are an automatic erasure of emails for employees on holiday or email connections cutoff.
Eventhough no sanction for a breach of this obligation is foreseen, the company should publish a charter with employees out-of-hours demands and rights.
8. November 2016
After WhatsApp announced in August changes in its privacy policy, several EU DPAs announced monitoring activities in order to ensure the proper use of WhatsApp user’s data. One of these changes on the privacy policy, involved disclosure of personal data of WhatsApp users to Facebook in order to fight spam and improve both, WhatsApp and Facebook’s services.
The EU DPAs had requested WhatsApp not to carry out such disclosures until an adequate level of data protection could be ensured.
On Monday, ICO announced that Facebook agreed to suspend these disclosures. ICO already remarked that consumers were not adequately protected and in most cases a valid consent was not in place. Moreover, it has requested both companies to undertake in writing to inform users about the purposes for which their data will be used. Until now, none of the companies has signed such committment.
If enforcement action takes place, huge fines may be imposed. This is especially relevant upon the applicability of the GDPR from May 2018.
Other EU DPAs, such as Spain, will contact Facebook regarding WhatsApp’s privacy policy.
On the other side, Facebook stated that it only collects the data necessary to offer their services and only a part of this data is shared with Facebook. A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed that WhatsApp’s update complies with applicable law, including UK law and that they will continue the conversations with the ICO regarding the questions raised on the Privacy Policy.
