This week’s privacy news includes information on how the new makeup of the U.S. Congress will affect National Security Agency reform,a German interior ministry proposal that includes a data retention provision and Australia’s formalizing of its streamlined approach to telecommunications, spam and telemarketing matters. Also in the U.S., a New York court has equated agreeing to AOL’s Terms of Service to waiving your Fourth Amendment rights. Plus, get insight on the new European Commission and the status of the proposed EU regulation in this week’s Privacy Tracker legislative roundup.

LATEST NEWS

Telecompaper reports the German interior ministry has introduced a revised version of its bill on improving IT security that includes a new data retention clause.

Hogan Lovells’ Chronicle of Data Protection offers an update on South Africa’s data protection regime.

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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has issued clarification on its 2006 Junk Fax Order confirming that fax ads must contain an opt-out provision, reports The National Law Review.

TechDirt reports on a NY District Court ruling that “says that by merely agreeing to AOL's terms of service,” users have waived their Fourth Amendment rights.

Alexandria Times reports Virginia’s new bipartisan personal privacy caucus, the Ben Franklin Privacy Caucus, will likely look into a cell-phone database maintained by Hampton Roads-area policing agencies, according to one of its co-chairs.

ICYMI

Marcin Lewoszewski of CMS writes for Privacy Tracker about Poland’s draft data protection law that would mean new responsibilities for organizations and, in particular, data protection officers.

GLOBAL

Germany and Brazil are urging the United Nations to strengthen a digital spying resolution to include metadata, Reuters reports

U.S.

A final rule was issued giving federal agencies the flexibility to either offer privacy training to contract employees or require the contractors to do the privacy training themselves, The Hill reports.

Wired reports that although two senators helping to lead the charge for reform of the National Security Agency—Sens. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Mark Begich (D-AK)—were ousted, "a Republican majority in the House and Senate is not the devastating blow to privacy you might have expected it to be."

Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology held a birthday party of sorts for the Privacy Act featuring an all-star roster of panelists discussing how the law came to be and why it was so desperately needed 40 years ago, as well as the ways its provisions now fail to protect Americans.

In this second installment for The Privacy Advisor on "The Privacy Act @ 40," panelists discuss the Privacy Act’s perceived shortfalls in the face of advances in technology.

Courthouse News Service reports the Federal Trade Commission has sued a debt broker for posting debt portfolios containing sensitive personal information of approximately 28,000 consumers online without adequate protections.

EU

According to leading lights of the EU data protection scene, the proposed EU General Data Protection Regulation will be finalized in 2015. John Bowman writes an exclusive for The Privacy Advisor on a standing-room-only event in Brussels hosted by the German Federal Commission for Data Protection and the European Data Protection Supervisor.

With a new EU Commission in place and operational, Hogan Lovells Partner Eduardo Ustaran, CIPP/E, discusses the three key players with "ultimate responsibility" for the commission's place in the data protection reform process.

As the new European Commission starts its five-year term, plans include working toward agreement on the EU's new data protection rules, a European Parliament media release states.

French data protection authority the CNIL requires businesses operating in France to declare all personal data processing tools and communicate the decision to operate such tools to employee representatives, Out-Law.com reports.

A report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation states the EU's cookie notification policy costs billions of euros per year and offers few benefits, The Wall Street Journal reports. (Registration may be required to access this story.)

ASIA PACIFIC

The Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner have signed a memorandum of understanding formalizing their streamlined approach to telecommunications, spam and telemarketing matters.

CNET News reports the Australian state of Victoria has made unsolicited “sexting, sharing unwanted 'intimate images' and even threatening to distribute such images” illegal under new laws designed to protect digital privacy.