3 12 December 2006

News:

Google, Intel, Oracle, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and eBay, have formed the Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum 'to support a process to consider comprehensive consumer privacy legislation in the United States.'

The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has secured its first community penalty for unlawfully obtaining and selling personal information.

SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, mounted a vigorous defence over the transfer of data to the US Treasury for counter-terrorism analysis, following the critical Opinion issued by the Article 29 Working Party.

Features:

Intense, well-timed and thought-provoking. These words summarise the 28th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners, which took place in early November in London, under the auspices of the UK Information Commissioner. By way of background, the conference was preceded by a detailed report produced by a consortium of prestigious academics and a series of articles and news stories in the press that set the scene for the theme of the conference - The Surveillance Society.

As 2006 draws to a close, we asked some of the members of our editorial board what they felt would be the key issues for 2007. In this article, they set out their views.

Data protection audits are conducted to ensure compliance, according to the Information Commissioner, who provides a 170-page Data Protection Audit Manual for this purpose. Richard Morgan, a consultant with the Technology Law Alliance, advises that the task should be broken into sections to make it more manageable, perhaps using outside consultants.

The recent Information Commissioner's Report, 'A Surveillance Society', analysed the issues affecting our personal privacy. In this article, Mike Bradford, Director of Data Protection and Regulatory Affairs at Experian, sets out the value of personal data to organisations and how this value can be used for the mutual benefit of both organisations and individuals, without fundamental breaches to privacy.

The US Congress passed a law proposing ten-year prison sentences and increased fines for deceiving phone companies into handing over records, such as phone logs. Jim Jordan, an Attorney-at-law, CIPP, at Jordan Legal Counsel, P.C., examines if this and other US laws, in light of the 'HP' case, adequately cover the practice of 'pretexting'.

The rise in popularity of social networking sites and the Government's plans for a child database have raised concerns about whether there are sufficient protections in place to protect that data from misuse. Kiran Sandford, partner and head of IT Group, Mishcon de Reya, examines two reports that have highlighted the risks involved with profiling children, which could result in guidance being issued.

The Catalan Authority of Data Protection (APDCAT) held the first International Conference on Data Protection in Pluri-National and Federal States on 4-5 October. Ferran Esteve of APDCAT examines the central themes.