Posts under ‘Data Protection’

The debate over file sharing is increasingly being presented as a stand off between property rights and civic rights, as the new opinion from the Advocate General, adviser to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), now demonstrates. All the while countries rush ahead with innovative measures to clampdown on infringement. Getting a [...]

Large technology businesses including Google, Facebook and eBay are fighting a new law in France (Google translation) that would require internet companies to keep user data for a year. The French Association of Internet Community Services (ASIC) is to challenge the law infront of the State Council. Data must be retained so that it can [...]

270,000 businesses start up in Britain every year, and the new Start Up Britain intitiative hopes to promote entrepreneurship by offering reading material, business resources, discounts and a variety of other assistance.  Some legal resources are also available, to help new businesses steer a clear path through swathes of regulation, manage risk, and to offer [...]

The Data Protection Act (DPA), which is the backdrop for privacy protection in Europe, was born in the pre- web2.0 era; before the innovation of social media. New challenges are being posed by new technologies and one study (by RAND) commissioned by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) last year concluded that, “in an increasingly global, [...]

In 2009 there was a controversial view that “Privacy is dead and social media hold smoking gun”.Essentially, the author presents a somewhat pessimistic view of Privacy’s position in the public sphere. He considers it to be a choice between either having privacy and not sharing with others or sacrificing privacy for the benefit of participating [...]

It’s easy to forget about things as you focus on the look and feel of the website and a good privacy policy could quite easily be one of them. But a privacy policy is essential for your website, as data protection and other laws give people a right to know how you’re going to use [...]

Facebook’s new ‘places’ application has sparked another debate over privacy. The new feature, which arrived today for UK users, encourages people on Facebook to share their location with other members of the social networking site. Although those who do share their location with others choose to do so, there is a concern that encouragement to [...]

When a site stores personal details for subscriptions, memberships or the like, there are certain legal regulations it has to take into consideration to stay on the right side of the law. The Data Protection Act sets out eight principles for the lawful processing of data.

Globalisation has given the possibility to think further afield. Not only in terms of selling products abroad and market expansion but also in terms of outsourcing work abroad to cut costs, (offshoring). But the export of your services would also entail the export of your client details, which would be subject to the Data Protection Act 1998.

Can an Online Service Provider be held liable for illegal activities that occur by users on their service? In the US, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act provides an exemption for ISPs who inadvertently provide the facilities which are used by others for infringement purposes. In Europe Directive 2000/31/EC (‘Directive on electronic commerce’) has a similar exemption for online service providers. Essentially, the resounding principle in both laws is that a service provider should not be in any way responsible when they were not aware of the fact of the infringement and when made aware they took steps to remove the content.