Data Protection in the News - May 2020

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

April 2020 data privacy coverage in the EU and US has been dominated by the ethical and technical debate over tracking and app technologies that are being deployed as part of the COVID-19 defence strategy.

B2B topics and other legislative developments have been less visible, but of note are Facebook's $5b privacy settlement and Banner Health being fined $8.9m for a breach from 2016 (links below).

Employers will be interested to see the Dutch fine and related judgement determining that employee fingerprints cannot be routinely processed to record employee access and attendance.

Of significant interest is the contentious ruling by the Belgian Regulator that a head of compliance, audit and risk should not be appointed as Data Protection Officer (DPO).  According to the DPA, this combination of roles creates a conflict of interest and therefore constitutes an infringement of article 38.6 GDPR.  This touches on whether any head of department or employee charged with protecting the company’s interests, including legal counsel, can objectively fulfill the role of DPO.

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