This week’s Privacy Tracker legislative roundup spans from Indonesia to Romania to Mexico, highlighting calls for updates to privacy laws and challenges to those laws that potentially violate privacy. In Romania, a new law requiring registration of pre-paid SIM cards violates citizens’ privacy rights is raising privacy concerns, while in Mexico a proposal that has caused much concern among privacy advocates will move ahead without interference from the Federal Institute for Access to Public Information and Data Protection. In the U.S., Delaware has passed a law that expands access rights of estate attorneys and other fiduciaries to the digital data of the deceased—with the report indicating it may become a national trend.

LATEST NEWS

At the recent APEC’s Data Privacy Subgroup meetings, Canada submitted its Notice of Intent to participate in the Cross Border Privacy Rules system, meaning, after a favorable determination by the APEC’s Joint Oversight Panel, Canada will become the fourth country to join the system, a Future of Privacy Forum press release states.

Supratim Chakraborty writes for Lexology on India’s data privacy regime.

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Advocates are calling for laws to keep up with Internet usage in Indonesia, reports The Jakarta Post.

Some say Romanian law requiring registration of pre-paid SIM cards violates citizens’ privacy rights, reports South East European Times.

JDSupra has published a summary of changes made to U.S. state data breach notification laws.

Advocates in Minnesota are pushing to reinstate a DNA collection law deemed unconstitutional by an appellate judge now that the U.S. Supreme Court has okayed the practice, reports Fox News.

The American Farm Bureau Federation has filed a complaint in a Minnesota federal court against the Environmental Protection Agency for its public release of farmers’ and ranchers’ personal information, reports Ohio’s Country Journal.

ICYMI

Timothy Banks writes for Privacy Tracker about a report from BC Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham that indicated there may be hope for Canada-U.S. data transfer in the form of "tokenization," a system of de-identifying data using random tokens as stand-ins for meaningful data. (IAPP member login required.)

U.S.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) discussed the need for outdated privacy laws to be changed in order to "reflect both the Constitution and public expectations," GeekWire reports.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has sent a letter to 10 major U.S. airline companies inquiring about their data privacy practices, PCWorld reports.

The Wall Street Journal reports, Delaware has passed a law that expands access rights of estate attorneys and other fiduciaries to the digital data of the deceased, and according to the report, it could "set a national trend." (Registration may be required to access this story.)

Kashmir Hill writes for Forbes thatFederal Trade Commissioner Terrell McSweeny said, "This reinforces my support—and it's a unanimous position held by the FTC—that we need comprehensive data-security legislation."

CANADA

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner released its 2013 Annual Report to Parliament on the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, noting online transparency as "a significant concern," CBC News reports.

Mondaq reports on opportunities for public input on British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), including public hearings on September 8 and 9, and written submissions will be accepted until September 19.

EU

Newly appointed EU Justice Commissioner Martine Reicherts pushed for clearing up the right-to-be-forgotten debate and adopting strong data protection reform soon, according to a Europa press release.

France's data protection authority, the CNIL, will begin conducting cookie audit on websites in October, and for the first time ever, will be able to do so remotely, reports The Privacy Advisor.

LATIN AMERICA

Mexico’s Federal Institute for Access to Public Information and Data Protection says it won’t challenge a new law that many fear could mean censorship and an increased level of digital communications surveillance in the country, Global Voices reports.