Statutes, Rules & Regulations

On June 23, 2015, the French senate formally voted the Loi Renseignement (see here). The law has been named “Le Patriot Act” because – in the wake of the terrorist attack killing 17 people in Paris (see here) – it gives mass surveillance powers to the French Government. On June 24, 2015, the law was voted also by the […]

On June 2, 2015, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, which the same day was signed into law by President Obama. The USA Freedom Act reforms the authorities of the Federal Government to require the production of certain business records, conduct electronic surveillance, use pen registers and trap and trace devices, and use other forms […]

On May 13, 2015, the House of Representatives passed Bill H.R.2048, the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015, with 338 to 88 votes. The Bill would amend the investigative and surveillance authority of the United States government. The bill would modify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to prohibit bulk collection of records under Section 215 of […]

On May 5, 2015, the Mexican Federal Government published in the Official Gazette of the Federation the decree that issues the General Law of Transparency and Access to Public Information, which its main purpose include the following: Distribute authorities between the guarantor bodies of the Federation and the Federal States with respect to transparency and […]

Following the Statement of Objections to Google sent by the EU Commission on April 15, 2015, the French Senate is discussing “search neutrality” amendments. According to James Waterworth, the ‘search neutrality’ amendments would be introduced in the ‘Loi Macron’, an economic reform bill, and they would oblige search engines to avoid discrimination toward their competitors’ services. However, […]

On April 22 and 23, 2015, the House of Representatives passed, with strong bipartisan support, two bills on cybersecurity, the “Protecting Cyber Networks Act” (H.R. 1560) and the “National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act of 2015” (H.R. 1731). H.R. 1560 was passed by the House on April 22, 2015, with 307-116 votes. According to the House’s […]

On April 16, 2015, an Irish deputy introduced a bill that would update a previous legislation, the Post Office (Amendment) Act 1951, which protects against harassment via snail mail, telephones and (as of 2007) SMS messages. The proposed amendment would introduce a provision dealing with “offences in connection with public electronic communications networks”. Among other offenses, […]

On February 24, 2015, Argentina enacted a new regulation addressing the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras used for video surveillance purposes. The regulation requires data controllers to give previous notice and obtain consent to CCTV related data processing. Previous notice can be given by means of signs clearly informing data subject of the existence […]

Vera Jourova, the EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, declared the EU wants to find a clear agreement on the Safe-Harbor Program soon. According to the Commissioner, the EU is seeking to resolve some key issues with the U.S. (in particular: “limited and clearly defined number of exceptions for law enforcement and security agencies’ access […]

On April 15, 2015, the Energy and Commerce Committee of the US House of Representatives approved the “Data Security and Breach Notification Act” by a vote of 29 to 20. The draft legislation aims to tackle data security threats at a national level. The document will be taken up in the House next week. More […]