3 8 August 2006

News:

A representative from the UK Information Commissioner's Office recently attended a meeting with other European data protection authorities, as part of the Belgium Privacy Commission's ongoing investigation into global financial data processor, Swift.

The recent decision by the Criminal Appeals Court to convict a police employee over the misuse of personal data has been welcomed for not following the Court of Appeal's judgment in the Durant case.

America Online's decision to make 20 million search terms from 658,000 US subscribers entered between March and May available to the 'academic community', has led consumer organisations and Congressmen to call for legislation preventing internet companies from storing personal data for indefinite periods of time.

Features:

There have been some reports lately that the UK government is looking into the possibility of revising the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. Although this is not a top priority in the data protection legislative arena - compared at least to the recent calls for prison sentences of up to two years for the illegal buying and selling of personal information, or to the need for a proper definition of personal data - the e-privacy regulations are seen by many as a rather woolly and excessively complicated set of rules. So apparently, the DTI is being talked into extending the rules that apply to business-to-consumers e-mail marketing to business-to-business marketing.

In the ICO's recent Annual Report, Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, recognised the value in information sharing in the public sector, but also the uncertainty that exists among public sector organisations over what activities are permitted under UK legislation. Valerie M. Surgenor, an associate at MacRoberts, assesses recent developments and whether this uncertainty is justified.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority has recently issued an opinion, informing organisations of the key considerations and conditions to be set when implementing whistleblowing schemes. Madelon van Tol, an attorney-at-law at Dutch law firm Kennedy Van der Laan, examines the opinion.

As data protection officer and IT security analyst at Airbus UK, Teresa Gudge has to deal with the challenges of managing personal data and educating employees on how they use this data. In this article, she explains some of the issues which she has to deal with in her role.

Despite some 91 million Americans being exposed to data security breaches since 2005 and US states continuing to pass their own laws, Congress is likely to conclude its two-year session without passage of a federal data security law. Emilio W. Cividanes, a partner in the Washington DC office of Venable LLP, examines the latest developments and the issues affecting the passage of legislation.

Recent internet developments have seen the introduction of new interactive business models, where users are directly involved with the content of websites. These developments provide significant commercial opportunities, but also challenges to regulating and protecting the use of web content. Kiran Sandford, partner and head of the IT group at Mishcon de Reya, examines the issues.

In a recent decision by the Dutch Court of Appeal, it was confirmed that ISPs are not obliged to release the personal details of alleged illegal file sharers if the conditions of the Dutch Data Protection Act are not met. Madelon van Tol, an attorneyat-law at Dutch law firm, Kennedy Van der Laan, examines the case.

To address the concerns expressed by global clients over the security of personal data handled by Indian companies, the National Skills Registry database has been launched in India. Shalini Agarwal, partner at Indian law firm, ALMT Legal, explains the initiative.