In the EU, France’s new antiterrorism law has some wondering whether it’s within the confines of EU law; Belgium is making the case for its authority to regulate Facebook, and Italy’s general resolution on online profiling activities is now in force. South Africa has new regulations for drone operators, and Australia’s privacy commissioner just got an extra $4.2M to deal with the new data retention law. Also in this week’s Privacy Tracker weekly legislative roundup, read about proposals at the U.S. federal level and new laws in states, including Georgia’s student privacy law, New Jersey’s limitations on vehicle event-recorder data and Maryland’s new social media law for higher education institutions.

LATEST NEWS

South Africa has a new law regulating the use of drones that includes requiring operators to have licenses and prohibiting them from flying drones within 50 meters of crowds, reports News24.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has pulled its support from the USA FREEDOM Act, asking for more reforms to be included from the 2013 version of the bill, reports The Hill. Tech industry groups are encouraging the bill’s passage, however, Broadcasting & Cable reports.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has signed the Student Data Privacy, Accessibility and Transparency Act into law, putting controls around the management of student data, reports Government Technology.

ICYMI

Peter Swire, CIPP/US, Huang Professor of Law and Ethics at Georgia Tech and senior counsel at Alston & Bird, writes for Privacy Tracker about the implications of recent hits to the controversial Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and the options in front of the Senate.

GLOBAL

U.S.

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has introduced his own version of a student privacy bill to give parents control over how their children's data is released and used, adding to the collection of those already drafted, The Hill reports.

Forbes reports. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) introduced the Commercial UAS Modernization Act, which would set guidelines for unmanned aircrafts systems.

Illinois data breach legislation HB 1833 is being opposed by the ad industry, which says it creates "unnecessary compliance burdens" for businesses, MediaPost reports.

EU

In this exclusive for Privacy Perspectives, Facebook Global Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Stephen Deadman says the one-stop-shop mechanism in the proposed General Data Protection Regulation is “in danger”and speaks from experience of the likely consequences for the EU if the one-stop shop is rejected or seriously watered down.

A general resolution on profiling activities online, issued in March by the Italian Data Protection Authority, is now in force, NCTM Studio Legale Associato Partner Rocco Panetta explains in this Global Privacy Dispatch for The Privacy Advisor.

In a post for FieldFisher's Privacy and Information Law Blog, Phil Lee, CIPP/E, CIPM, says the General Data Protection Regulation will not prevent forum shopping because "businesses don't choose their homes based on data protection alone.”

Politico reports France's new antiterrorism legislation is setting off alarms in Brussels, with questions as to whether the wide-ranging powers it gives French intelligence are within EU law.

ASIA PACIFIC

Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has gotten an extra $4.2 million in funding to cover resources required to monitor the privacy implications of the government's data retention scheme, iTnews reports.

The Singapore Personal Data Protection Commission’s Leong Keng Thai and Singapore Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim painted a picture of the regulatory environment in Singapore.

New Zealand Privacy Commissioner John Edwards says he is "getting tougher as a regulator.” Sam Pfeifle reports from the Singaporean Personal Data Protection Commission's third annual data protection seminar for The Privacy Advisor.