In this week's Privacy Tracker global legislative roundup, read about the latest support for U.S. federal privacy legislation and efforts to bolster state privacy protections. France's data protection authority, the CNIL, has announced the new members of its college. Germany’s competition authority, the Bundeskartellamt, has placed restrictions on Facebook’s data-processing activities. In the U.K, the Information Commissioner’s Office has launched an investigation into Google for potential violations of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, and U.K. government ministers are expected to reveal whether the government will create a new regulator for internet companies in order to “break up monopolies.”
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In Australia, the Insurance Council of Australia "has urged Queensland to work within a national program to streamline privacy and surveillance legislation."
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The Sofia Globe reports that Bulgarian President Roumen Radev vetoed amendments to the country's personal data protection law.
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ZDNet reports on the new provisions to China's Cybersecurity Law that took effect Nov. 1, 2018, and gave the Ministry of Public Security new powers.
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Addressed to the Minister of Justice, Portugal's ombudsman recommended that the country's law on personal data retention be amended, the International Ombudsman Institute reports.
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In Massachusetts, legislators introduced a consumer privacy bill and a bill to criminalize the creation and distribution of malicious "deep fakes," Packt reports.
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Policymakers in New Mexico are advocating for the Child and Family Databank Act to require certain agencies to share data to track children's welfare, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.
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The New York State Department of Education proposed new regulations to require school districts and state-supported schools to protect any personally identifiable information relating to students, teachers and principals, the National Law Review reports.
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House Bill 1485 in the North Dakota Legislature would allow consumers to request that companies delete and stop collecting their personal data, Grand Forks Herald reports.
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Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., reintroduced the Department of Homeland Security Cyber Hunt and Incident Response Teams Act.
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Karan Bhatia, vice president of global public policy and government relations at Google, said he would welcome global technology regulation, CNBC reports.
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ICYMI
VLP Law Group's Michael Whitener, CIPP/A, CIPP/C, CIPP/E, CIPP/G, CIPP/US, CIPM, CIPT, FIP, and Raquel Aragón take a closer look at how to regulate facial-recognition technology in this article for The Privacy Advisor.
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In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Joseph Jerome, CIPP/US, policy counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, discusses the difficulties of trying to pass a U.S. federal privacy bill.
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CANADA
The Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled Vancouver Coastal Health is not required to reveal the names of individuals who allegedly contracted E. coli at a PNE petting zoo, the Vancouver Sun reports.
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Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia Michael McEvoy said political parties have illicitly gathered the personal information of citizens within the province, StarMetro Vancouver reports.
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EUROPE
France’s data protection authority, the CNIL, has announced the new members of its college.
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Germany’s competition authority, the Bundeskartellamt, has placed restrictions on Facebook’s data-processing activities.
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The Irish Data Protection Commission warned Facebook about the privacy issues it faces in its attempt to merge its messaging apps.
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Within the next six weeks, ministers will reveal whether the U.K. government will create a new regulator for internet companies in order to “break up monopolies,” the Financial Times reports.
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The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office has launched an investigation into Google for potential violations of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, IT Pro reports.
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LATIN AMERICA
The Colombian data protection authority, the Industria y Comercio Superintendencia, has ordered Facebook to adopt new measures in order to protect the information of the 31 million users within the country.
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US
A group of five California State Assembly members has introduced a data privacy omnibus package, Government Technology reports.
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Connecticut legislators introduced a bipartisan House bill to prohibit the disclosure of voter registration data for commercial data but would allow some data to be made available to election and political committees, My Record Journal reports.
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The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity for the Internet of Things Program wants stakeholders to offer feedback on its “Considerations for a Core IoT Cybersecurity Capabilities Baseline” discussion draft.
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U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria disagreed with an argument made by Facebook as the tech company attempts to have a multidistrict privacy case dismissed, Courthouse News Service reports.
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Cisco has become the latest tech company to call for a federal U.S. privacy law, the Financial Times reports.
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Microsoft announced it has backed a Washington state bill to regulate facial-recognition software, Bloomberg reports.
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Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., have demanded answers from Facebook related to Project Atlas, a research project previously reported by TechCrunch, while simultaneously calling on Apple and Google to “do more to protect their customers from intrusive monitoring practices,” Multichannel News reports.
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In a letter to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the Democratic leadership and the full membership of the House of Representatives, advocacy groups urged lawmakers to oppose the proposal for “Smart, Effective Border Security,” which, they write, calls for funding of “various invasive surveillance technologies that would intrude on the liberties of travelers, immigrants, and people who live near the border,” The Washington Post reports.
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