Tag: EDPB
31. March 2021
In recent years, Virtual Voice Assistants (VVA) have enjoyed increased popularity among technophile consumers. VVAs are integrated in modern smartphones like Siri on Apple or Google Assistant on Android mobile devices, but can also be found in seperate terminal devices like Alexa on the Amazon Echo device. With Smart Homes trending, VVAs are finding their ways into many homes.
However, in light of their general mode of operation and their specific usage, VVAs potentially have access to a large amount of personal data. They furthermore use new technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence in order to improve their services.
As both private households and corporate businesses are increasingly using VVAs and questions on data protection arise, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) sought to provide guidance to the relevant data controllers. Therefore, the EDPB published a guidance on Virtual Voice Assistants earlier this month.
In its guidance, the EDPB specifically addresses VVA providers and VVA application developers. It encourages them to take considerations of data protection into account when designing their VVA service, as layed out by the principle of data protection by design and default under Art. 25 GDPR. The EDPB suggests that, for example, controllers could fulfil their information obligations pursuant to Art. 13/14 GDPR using voice based notifications if the VVA works with a screenless terminal device. VVA designers could also enable users to initiate a data subject request though easy-to-follow voice commands.
Moreover, the EDPB states that in their opinion, providing VVA services will require a Data Protection Impact Assessment according to Art. 35 GDPR. The guidance also gives further advice on complying with general data protection principles and is still open for public consultation until 23 April 2021.
28. January 2021
On January 18th, 2021, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published their draft Guidelines 01/2021 on Examples regarding Data Breach Notification.
These Guidelines are supposed to give further support to Controllers alongside the initial Guidelines on Personal Data Breach Notification under the GDPR, adopted by the Article 29 Working Party in February 2018. These new Guidelines are meant to consider different types of situations that the Supervisory Authorities have come across in the last two and a half years since the implementation of the GDPR.
The EDPB’s intention is to assist Controllers in deciding how to handle data breaches, namely by identifying the factors that they must consider when conducting risk assessments to determine whether a breach must be reported to relevant Supervisory Authorities as well as if a notification to the affected Data Subjects is necessary.
The draft Guidelines present examples of common data breach scenarios, including:
• ransomware attacks, where a malicious code encrypts the personal data and the attacker subsequently asks the controller for a ransom in exchange for the decryption code
• data exfiltration attacks, which exploit vulnerabilities in online services offered by the controller and typically aim at copying, exfiltrating and abusing personal data for malicious purposes
• human errors resulting in data breaches that are fairly common and can be both intentional and unintentional
• lost or stolen devices and paper documents
• “mispostal” scenarios, that arise from human error without malicious intent
• social engineering, such as identity theft and email exfiltration
The draft Guidelines further emphasize key elements of data breach management and response that organizations should consider, namely:
• proactively identifying system vulnerabilities in order to prevent data breaches from happening in the first place
• assessing whether a breach is likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of the Data Subject, the timing of this assessment and the importance of Controllers not delaying a notification because of unclear circumstances
• implementing plans, procedures and guidelines indicating how to handle data breaches that have clear reporting lines and persons responsible for the recovery process
• organizing regular trainings for employees to raise awareness on data breach management, and the latest developments in the area
• documenting breaches in each and every case, irrespective of the risk they pose
The Guidelines will be open for public consultation until March 2nd, 2021, during which the EDPB will gather feedback on the draft.
26. November 2020
On November 19th, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) met for its 42nd plenary session. During the session, the EDPB presented two new Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) drafts, which have been developed after the Schrems II decision to give more legal certainty to data transfers, as well as extended the public consultation period on transfer mechanisms until the 21st of December 2020.
The drafts presented by the EDPB include one set of SCCs for contracts between controllers and processors, and another one for data transfers outside the EU.
The first are completely new, and have been developed by the Commission in accordance with Art. 28 (7) GDPR and Art. 29 (7) of Regulation 2018/1725. This set of SCCs is intended for EU-wide application, and the Commission drafted them with the aim to ensure full harmonisation and legal certainty across the EU for contracts between controllers and processors.
The second set of drafts is a new take on the SCCs as transfer mechanisms according to Art. 46 (2) (c) GDPR. These SCCs will replace the existing SCCs for international transfers that were adopted on the basis of Directive 95/46 and needed to be updated to bring them in line with GDPR requirements, as well as with the CJEU’s ‘Schrems II’ ruling, and to better reflect the widespread use of new and more complex processing operations often involving multiple data importers and exporters.
The Commission requested a joint opinion from the EDPB and the EDPS on the implementation on both sets of SCCs.
During the plenary, the Members of the Board also decided to extend the deadline for the public consultation on the recommendations on measures that supplement transfer tools to ensure compliance with EU level of protection of personal data from, originally, 30th November 2020 until 21st December 2020.
The EDPB further adopted a statement on the future ePrivacy Regulation and the future role of supervisory authorities and the EDPB in this context during the plenary. The EDPB underlines that many of the provisions of the future ePrivacy Regulation relate to the processing of personal data and that many provisions of the GDPR and the ePrivacy Regulation are closely intertwined. The most efficient way to have consistent interpretation and enforcement of both sets of rules would therefore be fulfilled if the enforcement of those parts of the ePrivacy Regulation and the GDPR would be entrusted to the same authority. The EDPB further underlined the necessity to adopt the new Regulation as soon as possible.
24. November 2020
Microsoft (“MS”) is among the first companies to react to the European Data Protection Board’s data transfer recommendations (please see our article), as the tech giant announced in a blog post on November 19th. MS calls these additional safeguards “Defending Your Data” and will immediately start implementing them in contracts with public sector and enterprise customers.
In light of the Schrems II ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) on June 16th, the EDPB issued recommendations on how to transfer data into non-EEA countries in accordance with the GDPR on November 17th (please see our article). The recommendations lay out a six-step plan on how to assess whether a data transfer is up to GDPR standards or not. These steps include mapping all data transfer, assessing a third countries legislation, assessing the tool used for transferring data and adding supplementary measures to that tool. Among the latter is a list of technical, organizational, and contractual measures to be implemented to ensure the effectiveness of the tool.
Julie Brill, Corporate Vice President for Global Privacy and Regulatory Affairs and Chief Privacy Officer at Microsoft, issued the statement in which she declares MS to be the first company responding to the EDPB’s guidance. These safeguards include an obligation for MS to challenge all government requests for public sector or enterprise customer data, where it has a lawful basis for doing so; to try and redirect data requests; and to notify the customer promptly if legally allowed, about any data request by an authority, concerning that customer. This was one of the main ETDB recommendations and also included in a draft for new Standard Contractual Clauses published by the European Commission on November 12th. MS announces to monetary compensate customers, whose personal data has to be disclosed in response to government requests. These changes are additions to the SCC’s MS is using ever since Schrems II. Which include (as MS states) data encrypted to a high standard during transition and storage, transparency regarding government access requests to data (“U.S. National Security Orders Report” dating back to 2011; “Law Enforcement Requests Report“) .
Recently European authorities have been criticizing MS and especially its Microsoft 365 (“MS 365”) (formerly Office 365) tools for not being GDPR compliant. In July 2019 the Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands issued a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), warning authorities not to use Office 365 ProPlus, Windows 10 Enterprise, as well as Office Online and Mobile, since they do not comply with GDPR standards. The European Data Protection Supervisor issued a warning in July 2020 stating that the use of MS 365 by EU authorities and contracts between EU institutions and MS do not comply with the GDPR. Also, the German Data Security Congress (“GDSC”) issued a statement in October, in which it declared MS 365 as not being compliant with the GDPR. The GDSC is a board made up of the regional data security authorities of all 16 german states and the national data security authority. This declaration was reached by a narrow vote of 9 to 8. Some of the 8 regional authorities later even issued a press release explaining why they voted against the declaration. They criticized a missing involvement and hearing of MS during the process, the GDSC’s use of MS’ Online Service Terms and Data Processing Addendum dating back to January 2020 and the declaration for being too undifferentiated.
Some of the German data protection authorities opposing the GDSC’s statement were quick in welcoming the new developments in a joint press release. Although, they stress that the main issues in data transfer from the EU to the U.S. still were not solved. Especially the CJEU main reserves regarding the mass monitoring of data streams by U.S. intelligence agencies (such as the NSA) are hard to prevent and make up for. Still, they announced the GDSC would resume its talks with MS before the end of 2020.
This quick reaction to the EDPB recommendations should bring some ease into the discussion surrounding MS’ GDPR compliance. It will most likely help MS case, especially with the German authorities, and might even lead to a prompt resolution in a conflict regarding tools that are omnipresent at workplaces all over the globe.
20. November 2020
During its 41st plenary session, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted by a two-thirds majority of its members its first dispute resolution decision under Art. 65 GDPR regarding Twitter International Company. The binding decision aims to resolve a dispute arisen from a draft decision by the Irish supervisory authority, being the lead supervisory authority in that case, and subsequent relevant and reasoned objections raised by several authorities concerned.
The Irish supervisory authority prepared a draft decision following an own-initiative investigation into Twitter International Company, after the company had notified the Irish supervisory authority of a personal data breach on January 8th, 2019. According to Art. 60 (3) GDPR, the Irish supervisory authority submitted its draft decision to the other authorities concerned in May 2020, which had the opportunity to express their objections within a period of four weeks afterwards. They referred to, inter alia, violations of the GDPR identified by the lead supervisory authority, the role of Twitter International Company as the sole data controller, and the quantification of the proposed fine.
Due to the fact that the lead supervisory authority rejected the objections and/or considered them not to be “relevant and reasoned”, it submitted the matter to the EDPB pursuant to Art. 60 (4) GDPR, thus initiating the dispute resolution procedure.
Thereupon, the completeness of the file was evaluated, that led to the institution of legal proceedings stated in Art. 65 GDPR on September 8th, 2020. In accordance with Art. 65 (3) GDPR and in conjunction with Art. 11.4 of the EDPB Rules of Procedure, the default time period of one month was extended by a further month on account of the complexity of the subject-matter.
On November 9th, 2020, the EDPB adopted its binding decision and will shortly notify it to the Irish supervisory authority, which, on the other hand, will issue a final decision. It will be addressed to the data controller without undue delay and at the latest by one month after the EDPB has notified its decision. In compliance with the requirements of Art. 65 (6) GDPR, the lead supervisory authority shall inform the EDPB of the date when its final decision is notified respectively to the controller. After that, the EDPB decision will be published on its website.
26. October 2020
Following public consultation, the Europan Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted a final version of the Guidelines on Data Protection by Design & Default during its 40th plenary session on October 20th, 2020.
The Guidelines’ focal point is the obligation of Data Protection by Design and by Default as set forth in Article 25 GDPR. At its core is the effective implementation of the data protection principles and data subjects’ rights and freedoms by design and by default, which means that controllers are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures as well as the necessary safeguards, designed to establish data protection principles in practice and to protect the rights and freedoms of data subjects while processing their personal data.
The Guidelines further contain guidance on how to effectively implement the data protection principles in Article 5 GDPR, listing key design and default points, as well as giving examples through practical cases. They also provide recommendations for controllers on how to achieve Privacy by Design and Default.
However, this is not the only decision made by the EDPB during the plenary. The EDPB decided to set up a Coordinated Enforcement Framework (CEF), which provides a structure for coordinating recurring annual activities by EDPB Supervisory Authorities. The objective is to coordinate joint activities, which may range from joint awareness raising and information gathering to enforcement sweeps and joint investigations.
The EDPB hopes that this raises awareness, as well as give data subjects more confidence to excercise their rights under the GDPR.
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.
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.’
23. June 2020
In another update about contact tracing apps, we are going to talk about the new path of contact tracing in the United Kingdom (UK), as well as the European Data Protection Board’s (EDPB) statement in regards to the cross-border interoperability of the contact tracing apps being deployed in the European Union.
UK Contact Tracing App Update
Since starting the field tests on the NHS COVID-19 App on the Isle of Wight, the UK government has decided to change their approach towards the contact tracing model. It has been decided to abandon the centralized app model in favour of the decentralized Google/Apple alternative.
The change was brought on by technical issues and privacy challenges which surfaced during the trial period on the Isle of Wight, and in the end were direct consequences of the centralized model and important enough to motivate the change of approach.
The technical problems included issues with the background Bluetooth access, as well as operation problems in the light of cross-border interoperability. Further, the data protection risks of mission creep and a lack of transparency only urged on the of the app.
The new model is widely used throughout the European Union, and provides more data protection as well as better technical support. The only deficit in comparison with the centralized model is the lesser access to data by epidemiologists, which seems to be a trade off that the UK government is willing to take for the increase in data protection and technical compatibility.
EDPB statement on cross-border interoperability
On June 17th, 2020, the EDPB has released a statement with regards to the cross-border interoperability of contact tracing apps. The statement builds on the EDPB Guideline from 04/2020 with regards to data protection aspects of contact tracing apps, emphasising the importance of the issues presented.
The statement stems from an agreement between EU-Member states and the European Commission formed in May 2020 with regards to the basic guidelines for cross-border interoperability of contact tracing apps, as well as the newly settled technical specs for the achievement of such an interoperability.
The EDPB states key aspects that have to be kept in mind during the entirety of the project, namely transparency, legal basis, controllership, data subject’s rights, as well as data retention and minimisation rules.
Further, the statement emphasises that the sharing of data about individuals which have been diagnosed or tested positively should only be triggered by a voluntary action of the users themselves. In the end, the goal of interoperability should not be used as an argument to extend the collection of personal data further than necessary.
Overall, this type of sharing of personal data can pose an increased data protection risk to the personal data of the users, which is why it needs to be made sure that the principles set down by the GDPR are being upheld, and made sure that there is no less intrusive method to be used in the matter.
18. June 2020
On June 17th, 2020, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has written an open letter to the Members of the European Parliament over its concerns regarding the Agreement between the United Kingdom (UK) and the USA on Access to Electronic Data for the Purpose of Countering Serious Crime in relation to a future UK adequacy decision after the country’s exit out of the European Union.
In its letter, the EDPB states that it is concerned with the applicability of the safeguards in the Brexit withdrawal agreement with the EU once the UK leaves the Union at the beginning of 2021. The Agreement between the UK and the US allows for easy data access in the case of the prosecution of serious crimes, and facilitates an access request to be made to UK authorities and businesses under the US Cloud Act, for which it is unsure if the safeguards agreed upon between the EU and the UK apply.
The EDPB also stresses that, in the light of a potential data sharing agreement between the EU and the US, it is mandatory that the European safeguards in such an agreement “must prevail over US domestic laws” in order to be “fully compatible with European laws”.
Furthermore, the letter also states that “it is also essential that the safeguards include a mandatory prior judicial authorisation as an essential guarantee for access to metadata and content data”. In its preliminary assessment, the EDPB could not distinguish such a provision in the UK-US Agreement.
While right now the EDPB can only make a preliminary assessment of the situation based on the current elements at its disposal, it states clearly that the Agreement between the UK and the US will have to be considered in any relevant adequacy decision in the future. This is especially important as there is a “requirement to ensure continuity of protection in cases of onwards transfers from the UK to another third country”.
In any case, the EDPB intends to release its own opinion on the matter if the European Commission should release a draft of the adequacy decision for the UK.
