Are ‘the times a-changin’’ for the future of English privacy claims? UK privacy law is a slow-evolving story. Most of its principles have developed from case law since the Millennium, yet awards of damages by the courts in compensation for harm suffered as a consequence of privacy infringements (such as for distress and loss of … Continue reading
Tag Archives: privacy
EU Court of Justice rules on Regulation regarding standards for collecting and using biometric data in passport production
…But side-steps the bigger issue about the compatibility of possible secondary use and storage of such biometric data with privacy and data protection law With the development of biometric technology and its expanding use in the public and the private sector, privacy and security concerns are increasingly growing and formal guidance correspondingly sought on the … Continue reading
ISPs: data controllers as well as mere conduits? Does this make sense? What do we do with the e-privacy Directive if we care?
So here we are, the English Court of Appeal, as it has been explained by Alison in her post, has recently held in the Google v Vidal-Hall case, among other things, that there was a serious issue to be tried that Browser-Generated Information (BGI) is personal data under the Data Protection Act of 1998 (DPA), … Continue reading
Court of Appeal upholds landmark judgement against Google arising from its exploitation of Apple’s Safari web-browser privacy settings
Should privacy protection extend to compensate me for ‘distress’ suffered from the aggregation of my browser-generated information without my consent, so as to enable third-party advertising to be targeted at me – which in turn is viewable by others, on my device screen? In March 2015, the English Court of Appeal ruled that three individuals may … Continue reading
Google: a data controller as well as an intermediary service provider? Does this make sense? Who cares?
So everyone knows it, Google is polymorphous. It has experienced many different forms: mere facilitator, publisher, hosting provider, caching provider… The latest legal label stuck on its mutant forehead is that of “data controller” and this has been done quite “noisily” by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in its Google Spain … Continue reading
The Council of the EU and the proposed Genaral Data Protection Regulation… And what about pseudonymous data?
NGOs (non-governmental organisations) have been doing a good job recently in trying to explain where things stand in the process of re-drafting [and maybe one day adopting] the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You might remember that on 25 January 2012, the European Commission released a Proposed Revised Data Protection Legislative Framework, including the GDPR. … Continue reading
blocking injunction / Data protection / deep packet inspection / Intellectual Property / Internet intermediaries / ISPs / Privacy
Cartier et al v Sky et al 2014: what if the ISPs’ blocking systems did not implement Shallow Packet Inspection technologies?
Over the last couple of years, music and film copyright owners have obtained several website-blocking orders under UK copyright rules (section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988). However, as there is no equivalent legislative provision for trade mark infringement, website-blocking orders have not been used in respect of trade mark infringement… that … Continue reading
Article 29 Working Party on the concept of health data: could it mean that we need to adapt the definition of health data as well as that of personal data?
On 5 February 2015, the Article 29 EU Data Protection Working Party (WP) issued a letter addressed to Paul Timmers – the Director of Sustainable and Secure Society at the European Commission. Within the Annex of this letter, the WP identifies relevant criteria to determine when data processed by lifestyle and wellbeing apps and devices … Continue reading
New Dutch data retention law subject to judicial review
‘Mind your step’ – Repeal looms large in Europe for attempts to legalise invalid legislation Last year, many thought data retention legislation across Europe would withdraw quietly into the history books. In April, the Data Retention Directive (2006/24/EC) was declared invalid by Europe’s highest court (the CJEU) – based on its finding that the duration … Continue reading
The (EU Parliament) Legal Service’s opinion on the impact of the invalidity of the data retention Directive…. Is the wind starting to blow?
On 8 January, the legal service of the European Parliament released an opinion, the purpose of which was to answer 9 questions posed by its LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties, Justice and Home affairs), as regards the effect of the judgment of CJEU in the landmark Digital Ireland (DRI) case of 8 April 2014 on the … Continue reading