President Biden signed a new executive order on Friday, with a framework that seeks to replace the existing Privacy Shield program. That program was found to be an invalid mechanism for transferring personal data between the EU and the US in 2020 (the Schrems II decision). Since then, companies have struggled to establish an appropriate mechanism for transfer of information from the EU to the US.Continue Reading EU To Review New EU-US Data Transfers Framework

The EDPB recently announced its second topic for coordinated enforcement. At a national level, data protection authorities in the EU will be looking into the position of the data protection officer. The results of these national actions are analyzed and bundled, generating deeper insights into a particular topic. Last year, the EDPB had selected the use of cloud-based services by the public sector for its first coordinated enforcement action. So, this second topic will be of more relevance to a wider set of organizations. Given that the report on the outcome of the 2022 coordinated action is expected to be adopted before the end of the year, companies can expect a report on the DPO position sometime in 2023. Continue Reading EU Regulators to Take Closer Look at DPO Position

Companies transferring personal data out of the EU or UK are reminded of key deadlines approaching for the contracts that govern these transfers. When the European Commission adopted the new Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) in 2021, it set a deadline of December 27, 2022 for existing contracts under the old SCCs. This means that by December 27, 2022 onward, all existing contracts using the old SCCs will need to be replaced by the new terms.Continue Reading Deadlines for EU and UK Standard Contractual Clauses Approaching

It has been almost two years since the Privacy Shield was struck down as a valid data transfer mechanism in Schrems II. Many have been wondering “what’s next”? Will there be a replacement framework? When will that be released? Will the replacement be invalidated? Well, the European Commission and US recently announced an “agreement in principle” to replace the EU-US Shield Privacy Shield. The EDPB also recently released a statement welcoming the announcement, but reminding companies that the announcement is not actually a legal framework. Thus, nothing has changed… yet.
Continue Reading Waiting on a new EU-US Privacy Shield

The Belgian Data Protection Authority (APD) recently released a draft decision imposing a €250,000 fine ($285,000) on the provider of a consent mechanism that operates within a real-time ad bidding program. The ad bidding program, OpenRTB, allows advertisers to place online ads through an automated online auction of available ad space. Thousands of advertisers can bid on space in real time, through a fairly complex process involving many different entities (a schematic of the process was included by the ADP in its decision on page 9). The case first arose in 2019, and after several interim decisions the ADP has now held in this draft decision, among other things, a two month deadline for IAB Europe to present a remediation plan to the ADP. The case was one with cross-Europe impact, and thus the ADP’s decision has been sent to its European counterparts for feedback.
Continue Reading Interactive Advertising Bureau of Europe Fined By Belgian DPA for GDPR Violation

Following a similar case from Austria, the French data protection authority recently concluded that certain use of cookies placed by US data analytics tools violated GDPR. The case came before the CNIL as the result of a complaint filed by “None of Your Business,” the non-governmental organization created by Max Schrems.
Continue Reading CNIL Recommends Using US Analytics Tools Only for Anonymous Statistical Data

The European Commission recently adopted an adequacy decision regarding the Republic of Korea’s data protection laws. As a result of this decision, personal data can freely flow between the EEA and South Korea without the need for additional transfer mechanisms.
Continue Reading European Commission Adopts Korean Adequacy Decision