by Matthias C. Kettemann Can you recall a time before the Internet? When you read newspapers, called your friends on the landline and watched what the TV offered. Like everyone else? Things have changed considerably in this age of instant…
In the face – of Facebook
Landmark decision of German Anti-trust Authority In a landmark decision the Bundeskartellamt (German Antitrust Authority) is prohibiting Facebook from combining user data from different sources – of its subsidiaries like Whatsapp and of other third parties.1 The decision of the…
The “one for all lawsuit”
by Dr Katarina Barley – former Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection – Germany A faster, better and cheaper way of enforcing consumer rights Until recently, many consumers who had purchased a manipulated diesel car probably thought: “How is…
Joint Controllership within a group of entities*
by Jutta-Sonja Oberlin and Lukas Lezzi 1 Introduction It is crucial for compliance of intra-group[1] data processing activities under the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)[2] to answer the question as to whether such cooperation in data processing constitutes order processing…
Microsoft is driving its customers into non-compliance
Microsoft is secretly transferring data of user’s behaviour to the US for its own purpose. With this misuse of data Microsoft is driving its customers into non-compliance since the data transfer to Microsoft is lacking a legal basis. In addition,…
Threat of fines also applies to public-sector undertakings
by Lana Dachlauer-Baron The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (FDPA) have come into force since 25 May 2018. In the meantime, all German federal states have also adapted their data protection acts (LDSG)…
Facebook-hack: stress test for Irish DPA
Facebook has reported a hack of 3 million European users personal data to the Irish DPA.[1] The Irish DPA is under pressure to answer to the key question of GDPR: do national DPAs have the power to force multinationals like…
ECHR: Mass surveillance by British secret service violated European Convention on Human Rights
by Peter Schaar On 13 September 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled that the mass surveillance of the British intelligence service GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) carried out in cooperation with the US National Security Agency…
IT maintenance is ‘data processing on behalf’ according to German DPAs
With the application of the GDPR the question how to qualify IT maintenance in terms of data protection arises. This aspect is of great relevance while any software contains personal data. E.g. Microsoft, Oracle and SAP process personal data of…