By Prof Ulrich Kelber, German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI)// Recently the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) celebrated its second birthday. Nobody expected a wild party even before the Corona pandemic. Instead there were appropriate…
Schrems II: ECJ sets GDPR as a global standard for IT-business
In a landmark decision the ECJ declared the Privacy Shield as invalid. The data transfer from the EU to the US can no longer be based on this Agreement between the EU Commission and the US Government. The court held…
Data: The key role in fighting against the Coronavirus pandemic (Opportunities and risks of the contact tracing Apps)
By Jutta Sonja Oberlin// Recently, developers from all over the world including Google and Apple1 have been working on pseudonymous contact tracing apps. These so-called Corona Apps could play a vital role in the fight against the virus, but they…
Video surveillance: The supervisory authorities’ view and recent case law
By Dr Alexander Golland and Dr. Jan-Peter Ohrtmann// With the growing popularity of smartphones, dashcams and video surveillance for access control, cameras are increasingly becoming a part of daily life. In particular, video surveillance conducted by private companies – to…
GDPR – not fit for corona?
Who of us has expected the coronavirus? In Europe, public life has been reduced to zero, we #stay-at-home, companies are going bankrupt, people are loosing their jobs, hospitals are overloaded and people are dying at the end of the day.…
Junk mail from a dating portal (decision of Austrian DPA)
by Andreas Rohner, Gerald Trieb// The Austrian Data Protection Authority (DPA)1 ruled that the absence of a ”double opt-in” procedure can, in some cases, constitutes a breach of Article 32 GDPR.2 Double opt-in In a ”double opt-in” procedure, a user gives his…
Internal Audit, DPO and the adjustment of Three-Lines-of-Defense-Modell
Internal audit usually follows the Three-Lines-of-Defense-Modell (T-LoD).1 Within this modell the 1LoD is the business line – like sales and marketing. The 2LoD is checking whether the 1LoD adheres to internal policies, external law and adequatly manages the risk. Risk…
Irish DPC: liability for failure to act against Facebook
The divergence between strict legal requirements and poor implementation of the GDPR is significant. One key finding is the reluctance of the Irish DPC1 to take any action against global players like Facebook. Allthogh the Irish DPC has a discretion…
Google Analytics: Injunctive relief, information requests and damages
Peter Hense // Dresden Regional Court on Google Analytics1 Irrespective of the GDPR, claims for injunctive relief against the disclosure of personal data can also be based on German tort law according to a decision of the Regional Court of…
Data Protection in Japan
//by Toshihiro Wada The European Commission adopted the adequacy decision on Japan pursuant to Article 45(3) GDPR on 23 January 2019.1 On the same day, the Japanese data protection authority, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC), judged that the EU…