The Investigatory Powers Act (the “IPA“) was given Royal Assent on 29 November 2016, despite being described by Edward Snowden as “the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy”. At its core, the IPA is a consolidation of existing legislation such as the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (“DRIPA“), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers … Read more

The UK Digital Minister Matt Hancock has confirmed in a written statement that the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR“) will come into force in the UK in May 2018 despite the UK’s move towards Brexit. Read more

In an arguably predictable data development, the Irish privacy advocacy group, Digital Rights Ireland, has issued proceedings to challenge the EU-US Privacy Shield regime in the European Courts. Read more

The CJEU has ruled that the operator of a website may have a legitimate interest in storing certain personal data relating to visitors to that website in order to protect itself against cyber attacks. In the case of Patrick Breyer v Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Case – C582/14), Mr Breyer had brought an action before the German … Read more

On 23 October 2016, the Department for Culture Media and Sport (“DCMS“) confirmed plans to introduce personal liability for directors in relation to “nuisance calls”. Under the proposals, directors could each be fined up to £500,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO“) which, when combined with existing company penalties of up to £500,000, would create … Read more

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee (“Committee“) recently published its findings following an inquiry into robotics and artificial intelligence (“AI“) in March 2016. The published report examines the potential value and capabilities of robotics and AI, as well as legal issues and adverse consequences to consider in this area. In particular, it considers … Read more

The fine was the consequence of a cyber security breach in October 2015, which led to the theft of personal data of almost 157,000 customers, including the bank account number and sort code details of nearly 16,000 customers. Read more

A federal appeals court handed a major win to Microsoft when it ruled that US authorities cannot compel US tech companies to disclose e-mail content that they store on servers located outside the United States. The case arises from Microsoft’s refusal to comply with a warrant obtained by US law enforcement authorities seeking production of … Read more