Although the answer to this question may be obvious not only in France, but also in Europe, two decisions from the Paris Appeal Court may well change this established understanding.

The decisions, respectively published on 27 April and 15 May 2007, concern individuals to the SCPP (a French collecting society of recording companies), in two cases of music counterfeit using P2P networks. The two appeal procedures included both civil and penal actions and were initiated in the former case by the individual and the public prosecutor and in the latter by the SCPP and the public prosecutor as well. In addition to the first instance decisions made on the counterfeit claims, the Paris Appeal Court had to decide on the conformity of the first instance procedures regarding the collection of IP addresses on the P2P network. In both cases,

Sir Stephen Sedley has recently proposed the enlargement of the DNA database in UK to cover the entire population and visitors that stay in UK even for a week, under the argument of creating a fairer system and eliminating the ethnical unbalance in the present database. But a case brought by 2 English people to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) could change a lot in how the database will operate.

The UK DNA database is one of the largest in the world covering data from everybody having had anything to do with any crime, minor or major, guilty or not. According to Sadley, the database is biased against ethnic minorities. "It means where there is ethnic profiling going on disproportionate numbers of ethnic minorities get onto the database. It also means that a great many people who are walking the streets and whose DNA

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A Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act proposed by the US Administration was passed by the US Congress on 4 August 2007 allowing US intelligence services to intercept electronic communications between US, but also non-US citizens, if the communication passes across US-based networks, without needing a court order.

A written question was addressed to the European Commission and the Council by MEP Sophie In't Veld and Graham Watson from ALDE (Liberal group in the European Parliament) raising concerns on the US act which they consider as a violation of the privacy and civil rights of EU citizens. The questions refer to the level of protection of the EU citizens' personal data that the

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Google has recently announced a new change in its privacy policies by reducing its cookies lifetime to just two years, but experts warn this is more a PR move than a substantial one. However, other search engines started the discussions on their privacy issues.

A new post in the Google blog announced on 16 July 2007 that, following consultations with privacy experts and user feedback, the major search engine will significantly shorten the lifetime of its cookies, as a major change from the initial policy that kept the cookies as long as possible in the future, until the year 2038. Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel from Google confirmed that they "will start issuing our users

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The EDPS (European Data Protection Supervisor), Peter Hustinx, issued on 25 July 2007 an opinion on the European Commission communication regarding the improved implementation of the EC Data protection directive (95/46), considering that the Directive should not be amended and asking for its full implementation before applying any changes.

The EDPS' opinion is that specific actions are needed in the short term to ensure the full implementation of the Directive pending the Reform Treaty that will make the Charter of Fundamental Rights legally binding, "thus offering the citizens better data protection".

"In the longer term, changes of the Directive seem unavoidable, while

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UK Information Commissioner Annual Report (11.07.2007) Press release
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/pressreleases/2007/annual_repor...

Full Annual Report 2006
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/corporate/detailed_spec...

Italian DPA (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) - Annual report (only in Italian, 12.07.2007)
http://www.garanteprivacy.it/garante/navig/jsp/index.jsp?folderpath=At...

Full Annual Report 2006 (only in Italian)
http://www.garanteprivacy.it/garante/document?ID=1422054

French DPA (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés) - Annual

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The Irish Data Protection Commissioner has indicated that there is a widespread problem with government officials selling or leaking personal information to the insurance industry.

Recent media reports have indicated that members of the Irish police force have been providing access to the police computer system to insurance companies investigating car accidents. An inquiry arising from those concerns has discovered that there is also a wider problem in the insurance industry involving access to private social welfare records of individuals. The Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes is quoted as saying that the practice of obtaining such information has been and continues to be

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A joined letter regarding the proposed DoubleClick acquisition by Google was sent to the Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes by BEUC (the coalition of all consumers' organisations in Europe) together with other consumer protection organizations from Germany, Italy and Spain.

The letter says that "the proposed transaction may have a negative impact on the selection of online content available to consumers and on privacy. (...) According to the information available to us it seems that, through its acquisition of DoubleClick, Google could monopolize the on-line advertising business, thereby restricting competition and raising privacy concerns over control of consumer data."