The Irish DPC has issued a fine of €265 million to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (MPIL) – the data controller of the Facebook network – after a 19-month enquiry. The DPC also issued a reprimand and has imposed a range of specified remedial actions to be completed within three months. While the Irish DPC is…
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Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), biometric data is considered special category data, which requires more stringent conditions for processing. Fingerprints are an example of biometric data, and employers need to consider carefully how and where they use such data. When processing any personal data, an organisation needs to have legal grounds for…
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Research by British security software and hardware company Sophos found that coronavirus email scams tripled in the last week of March, and we can expect the volume to be increasing. Over 3% of global spam is related to coronavirus, with many of these fraudulent emails impersonating the World Health Organisation or even the United Nations.…
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Online harms can take a variety of forms, privacy violations being among the most notorious. Regardless of how we categorise negative internet user experiences, we know from a recent Ofcom study that 61% of adults and 79% of 12-15 year olds have reported at least one potentially harmful online experience in the last 12 months.…
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Health data, identity theft and fraud are among the most significant concerns of data protection, especially where sensitive personal data is concerned. Now the Information Commissioners Office has published detailed guidance on how data controllers should protect and handle this ‘Special Category’ data. Special category data Known as the most sensitive category of personal data,…
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On October 11, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the remaining amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) into law. The CCPA provides unprecedented privacy rights to California residents similar to those enjoyed by EU citizens since the implementation of GDPR. Most companies that do business with California will need to comply with the…
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GDPR Regulations begin to bite We are now beginning to see the impact of the GDPR regulations across politics, businesses and public services. With the upcoming UK general election, the ICO is issuing timely reminders. In Europe we are starting to see large fines being levied for GDPR breaches. ICO Issues Letter to UK Political…
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This has been a week where the combination of politics, social media and data protection have been much in evidence. Twitter political advertising ban Twitter boss Jack Dorsey decided to ban political advertising on Twitter globally, which has focussed attention on the use of personal data in targeting political messages. This has gained traction in…
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This blog, charting the progress of the UK towards Brexit and its impacts from a data protection perspective, has been running for a few months now. It seems that every week there has been a new twist or sudden change in direction. This week, again contrary to many commentators’ predictions, came the news that we…
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Shortly after he was installed in post, the new Chancellor, Sajid Javid, announced that three million new 50 pence coins celebrating Brexit would be issued on 31st October to mark the UK’s exit from the EU. Millions more were set to be minted in the following months. The move was supposed to underline the Government’s…
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