Data Protection in the News - July 2020

Expert commentary from Tim Lennard with a roundup of recent data privacy stories
from around the globe

There have been some meaningful developments in data protection and privacy in the last month.

The EU continue to flesh out a European Strategy for Data having smelt the Java, understanding that data is power and that most of it is leaking back into the hands of the US tech giants.

The requirements around cookie policy and user experience continue to rumble, with a knock back for the French regulator where it has been determined that they do not have the authority to apply a blanket ban on cookie walls.

The EU have fired a few warning shots at the UK, indicating that the granting of ‘adequacy status’ will be affected by any side deal that the UK might agree with the US on data sharing. Meanwhile, with the EU presidency passing to Germany, the journey to the long-awaited e-Privacy legislation regathers some momentum.

In Asia, Hong Kong suffers further isolation as China tightens its grip on the territory with some tech giants refusing to act on data subject requests from the region.

The coming month promises excitement on 16 July when the ECJ will rule on whether Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are a legitimate way of transferring data to legal regimes outside of the EU, while respecting EU data protection law. This threatens to invalidate US Privacy Shield and send it to lie alongside its predecessor, the Safe Harbor Agreement.

view full newsletter