On April 9, 2015, the Vienna Regional Court (Landesgericht) heard the first hearing (vorbereitende Tagsatzung) of the class action claiming that Facebook breached EU privacy laws. The class action claims that Facebook Ireland: has a data use policy that violates EU law; does not provide users with the possibility to express effective consent to several types […]
On April 1, 2015, Facebook received a class action complaint and demand for jury trial for having allegedly violated users’ privacy by collecting and using their biometric data. According to the complaint, through its “tag suggestions” program, Facebook scans all pictures uploaded by users and identifies any Facebook friends they may want to tag. Plaintiff […]
Tags: DATA PROTECTION, US PRIVACY
The Paris Court of Appeal issued criminal sanctions against employer for misuse of a CCTV system put in place for security purposes and not to monitor employees. It also awarded compensation to the employee for moral damages. More information on the judgement issued by the Paris Court of Appeal on February 24, 2015, is available […]
On March 30, 2015, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined the Serious Fraud Office £180,000 after a witness in an investigation was mistakenly sent evidence relating to 64 other people involved in the case. “The Serious Fraud Office is an independent government department, operating under the superintendence of the Attorney General. Its purpose is […]
On March 27, 2015, the Court of Appeal issued its final judgment on ‘Safari workaround’: it dismissed Google’s appeal and gave the leeway for UK data subjects to sue Google in England for cookies violations. At the beginning of 2013 several claimants alleged that Google used cookies to track their browsing activity “Browser Generated Information” without […]
On December 18, 2014, the Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA) issued an order with which it confirmed that the right to be forgotten must be balanced with the public interest to read recent important facts. However, in addition to confirming the need to balance the right to be forgotten with the freedom of expression, the order […]
On December 11, 2014, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) considered the recording by CCTV (Closed-circuit television) cameras on private premises as “household exception” to data protection laws, even though they incidentally monitored a public space. In this case, a Czech citizen installed a camera system for security purposes in his family home. The camera registered […]
On March 24, 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) heard arguments on case C-362/14. The ECJ is called to decide on whether national judges are “absolutely bound” by a company’s declaration to participate in the Safe Harbor, or whether they could still conduct their own investigations to determine if personal data are protected according […]
Tags: DATA PROTECTION, INTERNATIONAL DATA PROTECTION, US PRIVACY
The ABA Journal and the National Law Journal report that a Pennsylvania boutique firm sued 14 lawyers for stealing laptops pertaining to the departed law firm. After the suit was filed, the departing lawyers erased the laptops to preserve what they say were their clients’ sensitive data, and returned the computers. Now the law firm […]
Tags: CLIENT FILES, DATA PROTECTION, US PRIVACY
On February 20, 2015, the Italian DPA approved the protocol that the authority will carry out in order to verify Google’s compliance with the requirements set forth with decision 3295641 to protect the privacy of Google’s service users in Italy. The actual content of the approved protocol was not published, but according to the Italian […]