3 11 November 2006

News:

International privacy commissioners attending a conference hosted by the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) have agreed a joint plan addressing the need to safeguard privacy in today's 'surveillance society'.

Data Protection Law & Policy is organising a half-day 'Data Security Briefing', on Tuesday 28 November, focussing on best practice methods in dealing with data security issues.

IBM has developed an RFID tag which aims to balance the benefits of the technology with consumers' privacy concerns.

Features:

After more than three years since the EU data protection authorities gave the BCR idea their first public and real backing, arguments still abound about whether BCR will fly. For every lawyer and data protection manager that defends the virtues of the system, there is another one who remains sceptical about the prospects of BCR becoming a mainstream solution to data transfers. Against this background, let me put my cards on the table: Binding Corporate Rules are the future of global data protection. In fact, implementing BCR is probably the only way of ensuring a truly workable international data protection strategy.

On 16 October, the EU and US agreed a new interim framework governing the transfer of airline passenger name record data to the US. Kate Tebbut and Renzo Marchini of Dechert LLP, analyse its provisions and sets out why, in light of these developments, the protection offered to European airline passengers may have been weakened.

The legal frameworks that regulate the monitoring of communications in the UK public and private sectors are complicated and can lead to serious civil and criminal penalties if organisations do not properly assess their monitoring policies prior to implementation. Marcus Turle, a partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse, examines the issues.

As legal counsel for the Amplefuture Group, which provides technology solutions enabling consumer interactivity and offers a social networking website aimed at teenagers, Vanessa Mortiaux is well versed in the data protection challenges that such services present. In this article, she explains the key issues that the Group has to deal with.

In June 2006, the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) used new powers of inquiry and sanction granted to it in 2004, to investigate and fine Credit Lyonnais for breach of the French Data Protection Law. Marc Lemperiere, member of the New York Bar, Frere Cholmeley Eversheds, examines how a two-year investigation led to sanctions against the French bank.

Recent high profile reports of data breaches in the US have led to 33 states adopting data breach notification laws, calls for federal legislation and for an EU data breach directive. Fred H. Cate, Distinguished Professor, Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington, highlights how misinterpretation of statistics has led to ID theft to be considered the US' 'fastest growing crime', and warns of the harm that this could do to public confidence in protection of their IDs.