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Deutsch: Privacy Platform Meeting

On 1 December 2010, the Privacy Platform held a meeting on the Commission's recent Communication on updating the Data Protection Directive. Hosted by Sophie in't Veld MEP, the panel consisted of: Martin Selmayr, Head of Commissioner Reding's cabinet (who spoke in her absence as the Commissioner was ill), Jacob Kohnstamm, Chairman of the Article 29 WP, and Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor.

The meeting was well attended and overall, it followed standard storyline. In regard to the Communication and future steps for the revised Data Protection Directive, Mr.

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Deutsch: ICO verhängt erste Strafen für Datenschutz-Verstöße

After having received increased powers in April 2010, the UK Data protection authority (Information Commissioner Office - ICO) has recently used these powers to fine an organisation and a local authority for having breached the Data Protection Act.

Hertfordshire County Council has been fined with about 120 000 Euro for the fact that its employees sent highly sensitive information by fax to the wrong recipients twice, once in June to a member of the public instead of a barrister and the second time, 13 days later, to the office of an unconnected barrister instead of the Watford County Court.

"The Commissioner ru

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Deutsch: WP29 fordert strenges EU-US Datenschutz-Abkommen

As the European Commission prepares to conclude a deal with the US on the protection of personal data exchanged in police and criminal justice cooperation matters, the European privacy watchdogs call for a strict and clear privacy agreement.

Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (WP) sent a letter on 18 November 2010 to the three European main institutions (Council, Commission and Parliament) expressing its concerns for not having been consulted on the development of the discussion within the Council and European Parliament over the draft negotiation mandate presented by the European Commission on 25 May 2010, voic

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Deutsch: Niederländische Regierung gibt Pläne für nationale Bankdatenbank au...

After facing enormous pressure from the media, civil society and several MPs, The Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice announced that it will not develop a national database or search engine containing bank data of all Dutch citizens. The Dutch digital rights organization Bits of Freedom discovered plans to this end in one of 27 internal documents, that were made public after a Freedom of Information Act requests by independent researcher Rejo Zenger.

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Deutsch: Europäische Kommission setzt den nächsten Schritt zur Überprüfung ...

The European Commission has published a Communication on "a comprehensive approach to personal data protection in the European Union", as the final stage in the consultation process leading to a review of the 1995 Data Protection Directive.

Based on its work on this dossier to date, the Commission has identified the need to address several key priorities, the first of these being to adapt to the impact of new technologies.

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Deutsch: Google gesteht Sammlung von Passwörtern und E-Mails via StreetView ei...

Google faces further investigation in the UK and Italy, after it has publicly admitted in a blog post on 22 October 2010 that its StreetView service has gathered more data than intended, "in some instances entire emails and URLs were captured, as well as passwords."

The UK Data Protection Authority - Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has decided to reopen its investigation on Google over the personal data gathering by its StreetView system.

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Deutsch: Spanische Datenschutzbehörde leitet Verfahren gegen Google Street Vie...

The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) has opened an infringement proceeding against Google after completing the preliminary inspection activities which started in May on the collection and storage without consent of Wi-Fi networks location data and traffic data associated with them (payload) by the vehicles used to photograph streets of several Spanish cities, for the company's Street View application.

Moreover, once the infringement proceeding has been initiated, the AEPD has forwarded to the court the final inspection report, and according to the Administrative Procedure law, has adjour

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Deutsch: Europäische Kommission: Datenschutz-Diskussion auf höchster Ebene

Commissioner Reding recently invited a wide variety of representatives from industry, civil society, academia and law enforcement bodies to a high-level meeting in the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. The dossier is clearly a major priority for Ms Reding, who was very keen to discuss the minutiae of the legislation with experts.

One of the most interesting elements of the discussions was the apparently unanimous agreement across all stakeholders that the current data protection regime is fragmented, ineffective and out of date.