The Apple AirTag debacle shows that there is a need to diversify privacy to protect people and brands. Diversifying privacy means more than diversifying product development and privacy teams. It means looking outside the compliance bubble and centring marginal voices, including those that challenge the status quo.  Abigail Dubiniecki talks to Stewart Dresner and Tom Cooper and explains what went wrong with the Apple AirTag.  Apple is usually regarded as the company at the privacy friendly end of the spectrum.  The latest consumer tech products are promoted as offering convenien ..read more

Age verification and estimation by companies to protect the privacy and safety online for young people Stewart Dresner talks to Iain Corby, Executive Director, The Age Verification Providers’ Association (AVPA) and Project Manager, euCONSENT.  There is consensus that young people should be safe online. But how should organisations behave in an ethical way? How to reconcile the commercial objectives of data acquisition and retention, and the legal objective of data minimisation and data protection by design? There are many international and national initiatives on online safety for young ..read more

In our first podcast, Professor Graham Greenleaf, PL&B Asia Pacific Editor, discusses the privacy aspects of Australia’s CovidSAFE voluntary contact tracing app with Stewart Dresner, Publisher, Helena Wootton, Data Lawyer and PL&B correspondent and Tom Cooper, Deputy Editor. A fuller analysis is available in the June 2020 edition of Privacy Laws & Business International Report ..read more

Opt-out rights are enshrined in many national privacy laws and regulations, which provide individuals with a right to opt-out of unwanted marketing. But this is a time-consuming process and often requires know-how and commitment. Global Privacy Control (GPC) is a new mechanism which enables anyone to easily opt out of website-based marketing.  Rob Shavell, Founder and CEO of Boston-based Abine (which includes DeleteMe and Blur), explains the organisations, websites and major media groups behind GPC. They include the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Financial Times, browsers, incl ..read more

COVID-19: The impact on wellbeing and the use of personal data in HR. What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health and wellbeing of employees? How are organisations balancing their obligations under data protection laws when using employee data to ensure the effective management of their employees? What steps should organisations take with particular care for processing sensitive health data? How should organisations recognise the boundaries between work life and home life when so many people are now working from home? At what point does management monitoring become too intrusive ..read more

Justin Antonipillai, Founder and CEO, WireWheel, discusses with Helena Wootton and Stewart Dresner the privacy laws most likely to be adopted in the US. His experience of leading President Barack Obama’s attempt to have a federal privacy law adopted by the US Congress leads him to explain why he considers such a law in the next five years as unlikely. The new Chair of the Federal Trade Commission is more energetic on privacy issues. Stronger sanctions are likely but the FTC is constrained by its narrow scope and lack of a comprehensive federal privacy statute. Meanwhile, the initiative is bei ..read more

The European Data Protection Board has issued GDPR controller-processor guidelines (for consultation) which define the roles and responsibilities for the different actors. Laura Linkomies talks with Elisabeth Jilderyd, International Legal Advisor and Coordinator, International and EU Department at Sweden’s Data Protection Authority about the controller-processor relationship, joint controllers, drawing up agreements between the parties, and their responsibilities in case of a data breach ..read more

Canada leads on applying privacy law to sales of recreational cannabis.   Michael McEvoy, Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia (BC), Canada, explains why and how he has applied the BC privacy law to the legal retail sale of recreational cannabis. To coincide with the legalisation of recreational cannabis, he published in October 2018, Protecting Personal Information: Cannabis Transactions, the world’s first guidance on this subject. This was updated in a revised version in August 2021. He explains the main privacy issues common to the retail sale of other products in ..read more

How have Covid-19 tracing apps addressed data protection issues? Do they work and are there lessons there for all app developers? Hosted by Tom Cooper, Deputy Editior, with Laura Linkomies, Editor, and Helena Wootton, Data Lawyer and Correspondent. MIT article on tracing the tracing apps mentioned in the discussion - https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/07/1000961/launching-mittr-covid-tracing-tracker ..read more

In a podcast aimed at licencees and managers, Helena Wootton, Stewart Dresner and Tom Cooper discuss possible data protection pitfalls of collecting data from customers and make some practical suggestions. Useful links: UK Government guidance - Keeping workers and customers safe during COVID-19 in restaurants, pubs, bars and takeaway services https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5eb96e8e86650c278b077616/Keeping-workers-and-customers-safe-during-covid-19-restaurants-pubs-bars-takeaways-230620.pdf Big Hospitality -  Coronavirus track and trace: 7 steps to complying with data prot ..read more