Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On November 9, 2018, Serbia’s National Assembly enacted a new data protection law. The Personal Data Protection Law, which becomes effective on August 21, 2019, is modeled after the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

On November 23, 2018, the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) published its long-awaited draft guidelines on the extraterritorial application of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) (the “Guidelines”). To date, there has been a degree of uncertainty for organizations regarding the scope of the GDPR’s application outside of the EU. While the Guidelines provide some clarity on this issue, questions will remain for non-EU controllers and processors. Importantly, these Guidelines are only in draft form and are open for consultation until January 18, 2019, which will give organizations an opportunity to provide comments and raise additional questions in an effort to obtain further clarification from the EDPB on these important scoping questions.

On November 23, 2018, the Belgian Data Protection Authority (the “Belgian DPA”) published a review of its activities since the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) became applicable on May 25, 2018 (the “Review”).

The Centre for Information Policy Leadership (“CIPL”) at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP recently submitted formal comments to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (“NTIA”) in response to its request for public comments on developing the administration’s approach to consumer privacy.

The Centre for Information Policy Leadership (“CIPL”) at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP recently published the first report in its project on Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) and Data Protection: Delivering Sustainable AI Accountability in Practice.

On November 19, 2018, The Register reported that the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) issued a warning to the U.S.-based The Washington Post over its approach to obtaining consent for cookies to access the service.

On November 20, 2018, the Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could shape future litigation under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). BIPA requires companies to (i) provide prior written notice to individuals that their biometric data will be collected and the purpose for such collection, (ii) obtain a written release from individuals before collecting their biometric data and (iii) develop a publicly available policy that sets forth a retention schedule and guidelines for deletion once the biometric data is no longer used for the purpose for which it was collected (but for no more than three years after collection). BIPA also prohibits companies from selling, leasing or trading biometric data.

On November 14, 2018, the UK government and the EU agreed upon the text of a draft Withdrawal Agreement in relation to the UK’s impending exit from the European Union on March 29, 2019. The draft Withdrawal Agreement provides for a transition period under which the UK will remain subject to a number of its EU membership obligations, during the period starting when the UK leaves the EU on March 29, 2019 to the end of the transition period on December 31, 2020. The draft Withdrawal Agreement provides the following in relation to data protection law:

On November 12, 2018, the Centre for Information Policy Leadership (“CIPL”) at Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP published a legal note on the ePrivacy Regulation and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. It was written for CIPL by Dr. Maja Brkan, assistant professor of EU law at Maastricht University, David Dumont, Counsel at Hunton Andrews Kurth, and Dr. Hielke Hijmans, CIPL’s Senior Policy Advisor. 

On November 9, 2018, the European Commission (“the Commission”) submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (“NTIA”) in response to its request for public comments on developing the administration’s approach to consumer privacy.