The Office of Hong Kong’s Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) recently announced the results of compliance checks on the collection of “cookies” by local banks in response to earlier media reports and a survey by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).
According to media reports from September 2010, some local banks in Hong Kong required their customers to accept cookies for use of Internet banking services without informing customers of the type of data to
By Gail Crawford and Amy Taylor
Privacy professionals from more than 20 countries are gathered in Cambridge, England, to discuss privacy challenges in today’s world at the 25th annual Privacy Laws & Business conference.
Professor Michael Birnhack, Professor of Law at Tel Aviv University and Visiting Associate Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London, kicked off the conference on Monday–day one of the three-day event–aptly setting the scene with a session on the
By Gail Crawford, Amy Taylor, and Ben Wright
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) 12-month grace period for enforcing compliance with the new cookie consent rules has now expired. If you are not yet compliant, you need to take action.
Over the course of the 12-month grace period, we have seen guidance released from, amongst others, the ICO, setting out its interpretation of the new rules; the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), working with industry to publish a
Focus on Mobile App Transparency
Pursuant to the Obama Administration’s blueprint for consumer privacy released in February (and in accord with a request for comments published in March), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has issued a notice setting July 12, 2012, as the date for the first meeting in its privacy multistakeholder process. Mobile app transparency will be the focus of the first meeting.
The process “will encourage stakeholders to develop a code of conduct that promotes transparent disclosures
European Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has confirmed that we can expect to see a draft of the eagerly awaited new Data Privacy Directive in January.
The new rules are likely to significantly strengthen the rights of individuals. According to a press release issued jointly last week by Reding and Germany’s Federal Minister for Consumer Protection, Isle Aigner, “consumers in Europe should see their data strongly protected, regardless of the EU country they live in and regardless of the country in
Our May 26, 2011 blog post on the new European cookies rules introduced by the revised E-Privacy Directive marked the deadline for EEA Member States to implement the Directive into national law. As of late August, only the UK, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Malta and Sweden have introduced laws fully implementing the amendments contained in the revised Directive.
The delay on the part of the remaining Member States comes as no surprise, given the significant confusion and controversy surrounding the
On August 3, 2011, the German Parliament received a new Bill from the Federal Council of German States (Bundesrat) proposing a revision of the German Telemedia Act (Telemediengesetz). As part of the revision, the Bill proposes to transform the cookie consent requirement of the revised European E-Privacy Directive. While it is doubtful that the Federal Council Bill will get the necessary votes in Parliament, the initiative forces the German Government to take action.
Initially, the
On 16 May 2011, the European Commission’s Article 29 Working Party released their latest Opinion on the status of geolocation data for the purposes of European privacy rules. Though not strictly binding on EEA Member States or businesses operating within Europe, the Working Party’s Opinions are highly influential and certainly set the scene for changes to come. This latest Opinion confirms the position taken by the European Data Protection Supervisor, that geolocation data should be considered ‘personal data’, and
In the run up to today’s deadline for EEA Member States to implement the EU’s revised Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive, including its new rules requiring consent to the use of cookies, the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport (the DCMS) and the UK’s privacy regulator, the ICO, have released further guidance for businesses, both on the requirements of the new rules and how they are expected to be enforced.
In terms of the UK’s revised Privacy
Last week we posted about the fast approaching May 26 deadline for member state implementation of the EU’s revised Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive concerning cookies on web sites. We noted the relative absence of final (if any) guidance from EU jurisdictions on the approach to be taken in their respective implementations. On Monday, the UK’s privacy regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (commonly called the ICO), provided some official guidance. As expected, the official advice confirms the strict position set
