1 11 December 2004

News:

Parents and grandparents throughout the land will be relieved to know that photos and videos of the school nativity play are for purely personal use and are exempt from the Data Protection Act. “Fear of breaching the provisions of the Act” says the IC, “should not be wrongly used to stop people taking photographs or videos.

EU data protection and privacy advisory body, the Article 29 Working Party, has endorsed a multi-layered approach to the provision of data protection information to consumers in a 25 November Opinion.

The European Parliament has rejected proposals for a central database of EU passport holders’ biometric data. Fears that privacy and data protection rights could be infringed by increasing “the risk of abuse and function creep” and that the scheme would “violate the purpose and the principle of proportionality” led the Parliament to amend the Commission’s proposals by adding that “no central database of European Union passports and travel documents containing all EU passport holders’ biometric and other data shall be set up”.

Features:

A few weeks ago, I was asked to prepare a presentation about this year’s data protection developments for my firm’s traditional Technology Law Crammer - a conference-type event aimed at summarising in one morning everything that has happened over the past twelve months in the technology legal scene. A very nice idea, but quite a challenge if you only have 20 minutes to run through your favourite pet area. Frankly, just the Durant case or the much publicised EU attempts to ensure that the UK implements the 95 directive properly would have merited their own conference, so I felt as David Blaine must have been in his first restaurant outing after his 45 days in a glass-box adventure - spoilt for choice.

Marcus Turle of Field Fisher Waterhouse tells under-prepared public bodies what to do between now and the New Year to ensure they can meet their FOIA obligations

This article considers the data protection issues which most commonly arise in relation to business merger and acquisition transactions. Although focused on share acquisitions, similar issues will arise in relation to business and assets acquisitions / sales by virtue of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE).

Alan Chapell looks at how companies can rely on privacy programmes to build consumer trust.

Employee data protection rights are a matter of concern for employees and employers alike. Data protection specialist, Susan Singleton, offers some pertinent advice on how employers should manage this complex area.

One year on, the CAN-SPAM Act has, argues Charles H Kennedy of Morrison & Foerster, confirmed skeptics views that it would not control email advertising. With no appreciable dent in the volume of spam, are authentication and spam-blocking technologies better solutions than legal ones?