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Category Legal update

European Council of Ministers in “historic step” for GDPR by end of 2015

June 15, 2015, Categories  Council of Ministers, EU General Data Protection Regulation, European Parliament, Legal update, News Comments No comments

V Jourova, European Commission describes progress on GDPR as an historic daySpeaking at a news conference a few hours ago, Věra Jourová, the European Union’s Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality announced that an “historic step” had been taken today as the European Council of Ministers reached agreement on the general approach on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Latvia’s minister for justice Dzintars Rasnačs added: “We have moved a great step closer to modernised and harmonised data protection framework for the European Union...

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Countdown to GDPR

June 9, 2015, Categories  European Commission, European Parliament, Guru in a Bottle, Legal update Comments No comments

time is tickingThe clock is ticking for reaching agreement on the EU General Data Protection Regulation, according to the European People’s Party (EPP) Group that brings together centre and centre-right pro-European political forces from the Member States and represents the largest group in the European Parliament.

Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 June 2015

The Council of Ministers will meet in Luxembourg to agree the adoption of a general approach to GDPR.

In effect, the Council will declare its own view on the preferred draft for GDPR and GDPR watchers the world over will be able to compare and contrast the various differences that will exist between this version and the one favoured by the Eur...

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Don’t call us. We’ll call you. And steal your data.

April 10, 2015, Categories  Legal update Comments No comments

AT&T image of data theftWhile the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements have yet to be finalised, 20 years of European jurisprudence is a strong indication of the direction of travel where the supervisory authorities are going to clamp down hard on those organisations and their outsourcing providers that violate the new minimum standards for data protection.

And if you’re in any doubt how hard this will impact the telecoms sector, then you should look no further than what’s just happened to AT&T earlier this week in the US to get a taste of what we can expect to see here in the EU in the wake of the GDPR.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reached a settlement wit...

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Thought leadership in digital marketing

February 28, 2015, Categories  data protection, EU General Data Protection Regulation, Legal update, Marketing practice, News, Social marketing practice Comments No comments

telepaint

We have two feature articles written by Ardi Kolah:

Data protection rules overhaul – Top Tips for compliance

Extract: Data protection and the security of data is perhaps the biggest issue facing the advertising and marketing sector from a business continuity perspective as to get this badly wrong opens the door to punitive fines of up to five per cent of global turnover or €100m. Ardi Kolah shares his top ten tips for marketers.

Urgent Action is Required as Data Breaches hit Record Highs

Extract: According to global digital security firm Gemalto, 1,541 data breaches in 2014 led to one billion data records being compromised, representing a four per cent increase in data...

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New FCA rules result in loan sharks losing their teeth to bite borrowers

January 3, 2015, Categories  Consumer behaviour, Legal update Comments No comments

loan sharksFrom Friday 2 January 2015, payday lenders are now required to be fairer and in many cases cheaper and have had lost the ability to inflict misery on their customers that struggle to pay.

As a result of the new rules introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that regulates the market, it’s estimated that more than 100 payday loan firms have been driven out of business – 30 have closed down and a further 70 have simply stopped offering these products, while 450 high-street payday loan shops have also closed according to media reports.

“The crackdown on the payday lending market comes not a moment too soon...

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Fingerprint technology is unsafe as a security measure claims leading cyber crime and compliance expert

January 2, 2015, Categories  Legal update, News Comments No comments

121019_fingerprint_machine_lgThere are growing concerns among data protection experts that current safeguards in place for the collection and storage of fingerprints is deeply flawed and are likely to be in breach of the forthcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation, expected to be approved in 2015.

At the convention of Chaos Computer Club, a computer hacker known as “Starbug” claims to have cloned the thumbprint of German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen simply by using a standard smartphone and other pictures taken of her when she spoke at a conference recently.

Fingerprint identification is a commonplace security measure...

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Google hit with threat of massive fine by Dutch Regulator for data breach

December 17, 2014, Categories  Legal update, News Comments No comments

Google AccountAs reported in the Financial Times (London, 15 December 2015), Google faces its largest ever fine from a European regulator after the Dutch Data Protection Agency threatened Google with a €15m fine over the way its stores personal data.

The Dutch Regulator demanded that Google asks users for “unambiguous consent” before it can share their personal details between its services, such as Google Maps and YouTube, the video-sharing site.

It also mandated that the company clarify its privacy policy so users know which bits of personal data are used by its different services.

The ruling comes in the wake of the meeting of Council of Ministers that are looking at ways of makin...

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Sony try to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted. It may not work.

December 17, 2014, Categories  Legal update, News Comments No comments

Sony PictureTri_Star_pictures_flying_horses Entertainment (SPE) has warned media owners they could face legal action for substantial damages if they report the contents of stolen documents that were leaked online following a cyber-attack on Sony in November 2014.

In a blunt letter written by a top US law firm, SPE has requested media organisations including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and The Hollywood Reporter to destroy “stolen information” which includes documents, personal data and emails that’s sensitive data that is now presumed to be in the public domain.

In a thinly veiled threat, the letter warned: “If you don’t comply with this request and the stolen informa...

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Unlocking the power of direct marketing under the new EU Regulation

December 16, 2014, Categories  Guru in a Bottle, Legal update, News Comments No comments

EU data protection keyAt a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs, part of the EU Council of Ministers that took place on 4-5 December 2014, the forthcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation took a further step to becoming adopted across all 28 EU Member States.

The meeting, attended by Chris Grayling, Lord Chancellor and Teresa May, Home Secretary and chaired by Andrea Orlando, Italian Minister of Justice and President of the Council marks a tipping point in the harmonization of data protection laws across all 28 EU Member States.

At that meeting, the EU Council of Ministers gained partial consensus on two important and inter-related points with respect to data security and protection that ...

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Banks face allegation of under reporting cyber-crime

November 8, 2014, Categories  Legal update Comments No comments

Andrew_Tyrie_Treasury Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie MP is to question banks over allegations that they may be under-reporting instances of bank fraud because they don’t want to frighten people.

Tyrie made his comments following a Treasury Select Committee hearing into cybercrime and fraud held as part of its inquiry into the ‘Treatment of Financial Services Consumers’.The Committee heard evidence from Dr Richard Clayton, a senior researcher in security economics at the University of Cambridge, who said that banks are reluctant to report the true extent of cybercrime for fear of spooking customers.

He told the Committee that “insider” accounts of fraud losses are double the numbers gener...

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