Tag: Norway
22. February 2022
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority (DPA), Datatilsynet, has reached out to the Ministry of Local Government and District Affairs in a letter emphasizing the requirement of tightening cookie regulations in Norway.
This letter comes amid voices of consulting committees to delay the proposed tightened cookie regulations which have been on open consultation in Norway since the end of last year.
In the letter, the Datatilsynet points out the importance of strengthened cookie laws, specifically regarding the manner of obtaining consent and the design of the consent banners, which “are designed in ways that influence users to consent by making it more cumbersome and time consuming to not consent”.
The letter also references the French data protection authority’s decisions to fine Google €150 million and Facebook €60 million for inadequately facilitating refusal of cookies, as issued on 31 December 2021, and clearly outlined that in contrast to the practices for which Google and Facebook had been fined in France, the cookie practices would hardly have been considered problematic under the Norwegian cookie regulations, where illusory consents are allowed through pre-set browser settings.
Senior Legal Advisor Anders Obrestad stated that “these cases illustrate how unsustainable the current regulation of cookies and similar sports technologies in Norway are for the privacy of internet users”.
The Norwegian DPA hopes to be able to stop any delay in the strengthening of cookie regulations, as well as emphasize the importance of valid consent of internet users.
26. January 2021
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority “Datatilsynet” (in the following “DPA”) announced recently that it intends to fine the online dating provider “Grindr LLC” (in the following “Grindr”) for violations of the GDPR an administrative fine of € 9.6 Mio. (NOK 100 Mio.).
Grindr is a popular and widely used Dating App for gay, bi, trans and queer people and uses a location-based technology to connect the users. Thus, Grindr processes beside personal data also sensitive data like the sexual orientation of the users. The latter are subject to a high level of protection due to the requirements of the GDPR.
The DPA came to the conclusion that Grindr transferred personal data of its users to third parties for marketing purposes without having a legal basis for doing so. In particular, Grindr neither informed the data subjects in accordance with the GDPR nor have obtained consent from the concerned data subject. Datatilsynet considers this case as serious, because the users were not able to exercise real and effective control over the sharing of their data.
Datatilsynet has set a deadline of February 15th, 2021 for Grindr to submit its comments on the case and will afterwards make its final decision.
23. October 2020
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) has issued the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens vegvesen) a fine of EUR 37.400 (NOK 400.000) for improprieties related to the use of the monitoring system installed on toll ways in Norway. They concerned processing personal data for purposes that were noncompliant with the originally stated and for not erasing video recordings after 7 days from their registration.
The penalized entity is the controller of a system processing personal data obtained from the area of toll roads in Norway. This system records personal data which especially enable the identification of vehicles (and hence their owners) that pass through public toll stations. The primary purpose of processing these personal data was to ensure safety on public roads and to optimize the operation of the tunnel and drawbridges in the county Østfold. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration however, used the recordings particularly in order to document improper fulfilments of concluded contracts by certain subjects. According to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, such procedure is unlawful and not compliant with the originally stated purposes.
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration was also accused of infringements related to deletion of personal data in due time. In accordance with Norwegian regulations, recordings from monitoring (and thus personal data) may be stored until the reason for its storage ceases, but no longer than 7 days from recording the material. In the course of proceedings it turned out that the monitoring system did not have the function of deleting personal data at all. Therefore, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration was not able to fulfil its obligation according to Art. 17 GDPR. The lack of this functionality additionally indicates that the controller, while implementing the monitoring system, also omitted the requirements specified in Art. 25 GDPR.
Taking into account these circumstances, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority stated a violation of the mentioned GDPR regulations.
2. January 2020
The Norwegian data protection authority (datatilsynet) recently imposed a fine of €49,300 on the city of Oslo. The reason for the fine was that the city has kept patient data outside the electronic health record system at the city’s nursing homes/health centres from 2007 to November 2018.
The case became known because the City of Oslo reported a data breach to the Data Protection Authority in November 2018. This report included information that various governmental and private nursing homes/health centres were using work sheets. These contained information about the residents, such as their daily needs and care routines, but also full names and room numbers. The work sheets were stored on the respective intranet of the institution and all employees, including for example cleaning staff, had access to this data.
After the procedure came to the surface, the Nursing Home Agency instructed all nursing homes/health centres to delete the work sheets immediately. Due to the way the data was stored, it is not possible to determine who exactly accessed the data and when, and whether unauthorised persons were among them.
In calculating the amount of the fine, the Data Protection Agency has taken into account that the City of Oslo reported the incident itself and has taken quick steps to delete the data. It was also taken into account that the incident occurred for the most part in the period before the new Data Protection Act (in force since July 2018) came into force and that under the old Data Protection Act the maximum amount of a fine was €100,000.
