States around the U.S. are deliberating on privacy bills, and in some circumstances, governors are taking the lead. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson rejected a bill requiring photographers to get permission from strangers, and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is getting flak from the ACLU for gutting privacy bills. In Wisconsin, police will soon begin collecting DNA from arrestees, and Washington is moving forward on a breach notification bill. Meanwhile, the Canadian Supreme Court has ruled Quebec has “no legal right” to the government’s gun registry; a UK Court of Appeal has issued a 50-page opinion on Google v. Vidal-Hall, and Singapore has established a cybersecurity agency. Read about this and more in this week’s Privacy Tracker legislative roundup. (IAPP member login required.)
LATEST NEWS
Companies in South Africa are still waiting for the government to appoint an information regulator, reports IT Web Business.
In the U.S., the Senate Commerce Committee voted unanimously to approve the Driver Privacy Act of 2015, EPIC reports.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) touts the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 which he cosponsored with Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and John McCain (R-AZ), Newsmax reports.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has vetoed a bill that, in most cases, would have required photographers to get written consent from strangers they photograph in public, reports PetaPixel.
The Sacramento Bee reports on the bipartisanship of privacy protection in California.
Florida’s legislature is considering two privacy bills: one to prevent citizens from using drones to photograph individuals in their homes and another to make it illegal to place a tracking device on an individual’s car or phone without permission, reports HT Politics.
Some Illinois lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the Privacy in the Workplace Act that would protect employees from answering questions about religion or politics at work, Nexstar Broadcasting reports.
Minnesota lawmakers are considering a license-plate reader data retention billthat would allow police to keep data for up to 30 days, reports Government Technology.
The ACLU is claiming that Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s amendments to bills aimed at protecting citizens from police surveillance are the equivalent of vetoes, reports the Associated Press.
A breach notification law has passed the state of Washington’s Senate Committee on Law and Justice. The bill would narrow the existing law and give the attorney general power to pursue a violationof the notification statute as an unfair or deceptive act, reports law firm Orrick.
Wisconsin’s law expanding the collection of DNA samples by police goes into effect this week, reports the Associated Press.
ICYMI
Dominique Shelton, CIPP/US, writes for Privacy Trackerabout the decision in Hulu’s four-year battle over whether it violated the Video Privacy Protection Act and what we can learn from it.
In two separate posts, William Baker, CIPP/US, writes for Privacy Tracker about the important aspects of the Net Neutrality Order and talks about the Federal Communications Commission's history and the implications and next steps we can expect to see as the order plays out.
The Hogan Lovells Privacy Team writes for Privacy Tracker about the Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2015,which recently passed the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade.
U.S.
President Barack Obama has signed an executive order allowing the use of economic sanctions for the first time against perpetrators of destructive cyber-attacks and online corporate espionage, Bloomberg reports.
The Federal Communications Commission is poised to craft new rules that could limit broadband providers' ability to share information about users' web activity with advertisers and will host a workshop on broadband users’ privacy rights, MediaPost reports.
In a piece for SCOTUSblog, Lyle Denniston writes about a ruling that determined a North Carolina program requiring convicted sex offenders to wear location-tracking bracelets for the rest of their lives is considered a "search" and so is subject to constitutional challenge.
CANADA
In a 5-4 decision, the Canadian Supreme Court has ruled the "federal government does not have to relinquish its gun-registry database to Quebec," National Post reports.
Ontario's first prosecution under the Personal Health Information Protection Act has been dismissed, Toronto Star reports.
EU
The England and Wales Court of Appeal has dropped a sweeping 50-page opinion on Google v. Vidal-Hall,and according to IAPP VP of Research and Education Omer Tene, it’s one of the most significant judicial decisions in the privacy space since the dawn of the Data Protection Directive 20 years ago.
ASIA PACIFIC
Amidst concerns about cybersecurity, Singapore has established its own cybersecurity agency, the CSA, "to combat bad guys lurking in the Internet's shadows," The Wall Street Journal reports.