China – Cyber security and data protection April round up

12 April, 2021
The financial regulators have continued to increase their efforts to develop and protect financial data. The People’s Bank of China released new standards on enhancing the data capability of financial institutions. Further, several banks were penalized for violating data protection rules in relation to processing of personal information. MIIT has maintained its focus on its … Read more

Happy International Data Privacy Day: Our predictions for 2021

28 January, 2021
Happy International Data Privacy Day! And what better day than today, to explore what 2021 is likely to have in store for data and privacy? Almost three years after the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force, and now 28 days since the UK GDPR replaced it in the UK following Brexit, data … Read more

ENSURING COMPLIANCE WITH ELECTRONIC MARKETING RULES: A CLOSER LOOK AT SOFT OPT-IN CONSENT

15 January, 2021
The ICO’s recent decision to take enforcement action against a number of organisations (both in the form of investigations and regulatory fines) for sending unsolicited email and text based electronic marketing communications to individuals should serve to prompt organisations to take stock of the ways in which they promote their products and services using electronic … Read more

China Cybersecurity and Data Protection: What you need to know about China’s draft Personal Information Protection Law

20 November, 2020
Mid-October marked the start of the formal legislative approval process for China’s proposed new law on personal information protection. The milestone draft Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) underwent is first reading by the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress and was released for public consultation on 22 October 2020. For further details on … Read more

UK SWITCHES TO DECENTRALISED APPROACH TO CONTACT TRACING APP

19 June, 2020
In a move that marks a major U-turn for the Government, the UK’s proposals for a centralised contact tracing app have been abandoned in favour of a decentralised model. The new model is based on technology developed by Apple and Google and replaces the original app designed by NHSX, which recently has faced criticism due … Read more

COVID-19: ICO OPINES ON APPLE AND GOOGLE’S CONTACT TRACING TECHNOLOGY (UK)

05 May, 2020
On 17 April 2020, the ICO published an opinion by the Information Commissioner (the “Commissioner”) on Apple and Google’s joint initiative to develop COVID-19 contact tracing technology (the “Opinion”, available here). Summary The Commissioner found the CTF to be aligned with principles of data protection by design and by default. Controllers designing contact tracing apps … Read more

The Encryption debate is far from ‘going dark’

07 October, 2019
Shortly after the release of the communiqué from the most recent ministerial meetings of the ‘Five Countries’ security alliance — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US — at the end of July, we warned that the issue of the use of, and access to, encrypted services and technologies ‘remains front of mind for … Read more