“Since the first disclosure of documents regarding the US National Security Agency (NSA)’s collection of US phone records from 5 June 2013 the British public has witnessed a series of alarming disclosures regarding the extent of the surveillance programmes operated by US and UK intelligence services. The source for the vast majority of these reports… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: EU Data Protection
Committee Inquiry on Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens – Sixth Hearing
LIBE Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. 07-10-2013: LIBE Committee Inquiry on Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens – Sixth Hearing – Programme “Session I focuses on the impact of mass surveillance programmes on the rights of EU citizens to data protection, either these programmes are implemented by third countries or by EU Member States.… Continue Reading
UK: Data Sharing Between Public Bodies
Data Sharing Between Public Bodies, Law Commission Consultation Paper No 214 “Data sharing is a common part of modern governance and the delivery of public services. Public bodies collect large amounts of data from individuals and other organisations in the exercise of their various functions and share these data with other public bodies. There are… Continue Reading
UK – Protecting Vulnerable Data Subjects
Protecting Vulnerable Data Subjects: Findings from a Survey of EU Data Protection Officials on the Use of Cloud Services in Organisations – September 23, 2013 “The use of commercial cloud services by public organisations in Europe is growing. While the benefits of cloud computing are indisputable, the public sector contains certain particularly sensitive or vulnerable… Continue Reading
Cory Doctorow: privacy, oversharing and government surveillance
Cory Doctorow: “The European Parliament is currently involved in a wrangle over the new General Data Protection Regulation. At stake are the future rules for online privacy, data mining, big data, governmental spying (by proxy), to name a few. Hundreds of amendments and proposals are on the table, including some that speak of relaxing the… Continue Reading
EC – consequences of living in an age of total information
Statement by EC Vice President Neelie Kroes “on the consequences of living in an age of total information”: “If businesses or governments think they might be spied on, they will have less reason to trust the cloud, and it will be cloud providers who ultimately miss out. Why would you pay someone else to hold… Continue Reading
European Parliament has adopted new EU legislation to fight cyber-crime
“The Directive on attacks against information systems builds on rules that have been in force since 2005 (Council Framework Decision 2005/222/JHA). While retaining a number of current provisions, it introduces new offences, such as the use of tools to commit large-scale attacks, new aggravating circumstances and higher criminal sanctions that are necessary to fight more… Continue Reading
UK ICO update on Google Privacy Policy
A UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) spokesperson said on July 4, 2013: “We have today written to Google to confirm our findings relating to the update of the company’s privacy policy. In our letter we confirm that its updated privacy policy raises serious questions about its compliance with the UK Data Protection Act. “In particular,… Continue Reading
Spiegel Online – “NSA Snoops on 500 Million German Data Connections”
By Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark: “America’s National Security Agency (NSA) is apparently spying on Germany more than previously believed. Secret documents from the US intelligence service, which have been viewed by SPIEGEL journalists, reveal that the NSA systematically monitors and stores a large share of the country’s telephone and Internet connection data.… Continue Reading
UK – Further action for Google over Wi-Fi data collection
“The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has served Google Inc with an enforcement notice over the collection of payload data by Google’s Street View cars in the UK. Stephen Eckersley, ICO Head of Enforcement, said: “Today’s enforcement notice strengthens the action already taken by our office, placing a legal requirement on Google to delete the remaining… Continue Reading
Obscured by Clouds or How to Address Governmental Access to Cloud Data from Abroad
Van Hoboken, Joris V. J., Arnbak, Axel and Van Eijk, Nico, Obscured by Clouds or How to Address Governmental Access to Cloud Data from abroad (June 9, 2013). Available at SSRN. “Transnational surveillance is obscured by the cloud. U.S. foreign intelligence law provides a wide and relatively unchecked possibility of access to data from Europeans… Continue Reading
EPIC – European Commissioner Asks Attorney General to Explain US Spying
“European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has demanded that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder explain the scope of US data collection about EU citizens. “Direct access of US law enforcement to the data of EU citizens on servers of US companies should be excluded unless in clearly defined, exceptional and judicially reviewable situations,” the Commissioner wrote.… Continue Reading
