It is finally here. This is the year of the GDPR. A journey that started with an ambitious policy paper about modernising data protection almost a decade ago – a decade! – is about to reach flying altitude. No more ‘in May next year this, in May next year that’. Our time has come. Given the amount of attention that the GDPR has received in recent times, data protection professionals are in high demand but we are ready. We knew this was coming and we have had years to prepare. However, even the most seasoned practitioners are at risk of being engulfed by the frantic fire-fighting mood out there. The hamster wheel of GDPR compliance is spinning faster and faster, but it is precisely now when we must look up, see the bigger picture and focus on getting the important things right.
Tag Archives: data protection officer
Article 29 Working Party April Plenary: Finalising Opinions and What’s Next
The Article 29 Working Party held its April plenary meeting last week, where it continued its work preparing for the GDPR, adopted an opinion on the draft e-Privacy Regulation, and discussed the annual review of Privacy Shield.
University Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) and Hogan Lovells Launch a Data Protection Officer Degree
On January 5, 2017 Paris Law School Panthéon-Assas launched its first university degree aimed at training future Data Protection Officers under the new European General Data Protection Regulation, which becomes effective across the EU on May 25th, 2018. Created by Paris University Professor Bénédicte Fauvarque-Cosson and Hogan Lovells partner Winston Maxwell, the new program will include courses in law, cybersecurity, data analytics, management and ethics. The faculty will include professors from various law schools, as well as practicing DPOs, information security specialists, lawyers and regulators from the CNIL, and major companies including Sanofi, GE, Axa, Lagardère, Google, Microsoft, Schneider Electric, BNP Paribas and the Banque Postale.
Future-Proofing Privacy: Security is a Critical Piece
Part 12 of Future-Proofing Privacy: Security is a Critical Piece. Security is a critical piece of the data protection jigsaw. Lack of consumer confidence has been identified as a key risk for the development of the digital single market, and a series of high profile breaches has exacerbated the situation. So it was inevitable that data protection reform would need to demonstrate that regulators were serious about data security and the Regulation does this by introducing three critical changes: obligations to have appropriate security in place will apply directly to data processors for the first time; there will be mandatory reporting of data breaches to data protection authorities; and there will also be mandatory reporting of data breaches to data subjects in certain situations.
New CNIL Accountability Standard May Become European Model
The chairwoman of the French data protection authority (the CNIL), Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, has long been an outspoken proponent that companies should have internal accountability mechanisms for data protection compliance. On January 13, 2015 the CNIL published a standard defining what accountability means in practice. Companies that demonstrate that they comply with the new standard will be able to obtain an “accountability seal” from the CNIL.
Poland Introduces Amendments to Data Protection Legislation
On 16 October 2013, the Polish Ministry of Economy published draft amendments to Poland’s data protection law, the Polish Act of 29 August 1997 on the Protection of Personal Data (“PPD”), aimed at easing administrative obligations regarding the compulsory hiring of data protection officers and registration of data filing systems with the Polish Data Protection Authority (“DPA”). Under the proposed legislation, companies would have the flexibility to decide whether to appoint an administrator of information security (“AIS”), currently a legal requirement. A data controller regulated under the PPD would be able to strategically choose whether to appoint an AIS, a move that would increase its compliance obligations and the company’s visibility to regulators in return for reduced external filing obligations.
Details of EU Data Protection Reform Reveal Dramatic Proposed Changes
Although the European Commission was expected to release its overhaul of the 1995 Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC) next month, some of the details of those changes emerged earlier than expected this week. In this post, we summarize the many key changes between the Data Protection Directive and the Commission’s draft Data Protection Regulation.
German Federal Court of Labour voids withdrawal of appointment as internal data protection officer
The German Federal Court of Labor ruled on 23 March 2011 that an internal data protection officer’s appointment may not be validly terminated because the employer wants to transfer this function to a service provider as external data protection officer.