Global Privacy & Security Compliance Law Blog

Tag Archives: Law Enforcement Data Requests

Privacy Shield is on its Way

By Ulrich Wuermeling, Jennifer Archie & Lore Leitner On March 17, 2016, the Civil Liberties Committee convened to discuss whether the Privacy Shield framework that will replace Safe Harbor provides adequate protection to the data of EU citizens. A number of experts were questioned including: the US lead negotiator, the EU Data Protection Supervisor, members of the … Continue Reading

Proposal of EU-US Privacy Shield Leaves Businesses in State of Uncertainty

By Ulrich Wuermeling, Gail Crawford and Jennifer Archie Earlier this week, the European Commission announced that a “political” agreement has been reached on a new framework for data flows from the EU to the US. The announcement highlights a few changes from the old Safe Harbor regime, such as more direct and active oversight by US … Continue Reading

European Commission Defends Model Contracts

By Ulrich Wuermeling On November 6, the European Commission issued a comprehensive Communication on the consequences of the Schrems Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ). In the Communication, the Commission puts national data protection authorities in their place by stating that Model Contracts are a valid alternative measure to provide … Continue Reading

DIFC in Dubai Says Transfer to US Cannot Rely on Safe Harbor

By Brian Meenagh On October 26, 2015, Raja Al Mazrouei, the Commissioner for Data Protection for the Dubai International Financial Centre (the DIFC), issued guidance on the adequacy of US Safe Harbor for the purpose of exporting personal data from the DIFC. The guidance is significant for organisations that transfer personal data from the DIFC to the … Continue Reading

European Commission Pushes New Agreement with the US

By Ulrich Wuermeling On October 26, the European Commissioner Věra Jourová addressed the Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs to discuss the consequences of the Schrems Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ). Jourová commented on the status of the negotiations with the US to find a new solution … Continue Reading

German Data Protection Authorities: Hope for Model Contracts?

By Ulrich Wuermeling An early Position Paper of the German data protection authority of Schleswig-Holstein on the Schrems Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) gave little hope for practical alternatives to Safe Harbor. On October 26, all German data protection authorities published a more reasoned joint Statement that follows the … Continue Reading

European Data Protection Authorities Grant Grace Period Until End of January 2016

By Gail Crawford, Ulrich Wuermeling and Jennifer Archie The so called Article 29 Working Party met on October 15, 2015 to discuss the consequences of the Schrems Judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). On October 16, 2015, the Working Party published a Statement summarizing their initial conclusions. The Working Party includes representatives of … Continue Reading

European Court of Justice: Safe Harbor Decision Is Invalid!

By Jennifer Archie, Gail Crawford and Ulrich Wuermeling On October 6, the European Court of Justice ruled that Decision 2000/520 of the European Commission, which stated that Safe Harbor-certified US companies provide adequate protection for personal data transferred to them from the EU (the Safe Harbor Adequacy Decision), is invalid (Case C-362/14 – Maximillian Schrems … Continue Reading

Snowden’s Legacy: Safe Harbor under fire at the CJEU

This week the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) heard a case that could destabilise data flows between the US and EU under the EU-US Safe Harbor Decision. In Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner(C-362/14), the same court that last year approved the “right to be forgotten” online heard evidence about the adequacy of … Continue Reading

Emergency UK Legislation Expands Government Powers to Retain and Intercept Data

On July 17th, the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA) came into effect in the United Kingdom reinstating the Government’s powers to require communication providers to retain traffic data (also known as metadata) and enabling the Government to serve warrants to intercept communications data on companies outside of the United Kingdom to the extent … Continue Reading

Proposed amendments to draft EU Data Privacy Regulation imposes major constraints on processing and export of Personal Data

Recently Jan Philipp Albrecht, rapporteur for the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee, the lead committee considering the proposed draft General Data Protection Regulation, published the committee’s suggested amendments to the original draft regulation.  The reports runs to over 200 pages and contains over 350 separate amendments. Since the original draft regulation was … Continue Reading

PL&B Annual Conference, Day 2: The Patriot Act, Distinguishing Fact from Fiction?

By Gail Crawford and Amy Taylor It seems somewhat fitting to blog about the USA Patriot Act on this Fourth of July. On the second day of the annual Privacy Laws & Business conference in Cambridge, Peter McLaughlin, senior counsel at Foley & Lardner, took to the floor with the aim of “distinguishing fact and fiction about the scope of the law and … Continue Reading
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