While Australia continues to grapple with the issue of data retention and debates over the right to be forgotten continue in the EU—and beyond—and as California continues to lead the U.S. in privacy protection, Japan has announced it will amend its guidelines on the implementation of its data protection law, and New Jersey is looking at laws to protect data from black box recorders in vehicles. Plus, in this Privacy Tracker weekly roundup, read about a precedent-setting case in Alberta, Canada, that determined the province's Health Information Act protects any information broadly connected to a patient's care, even if that information is about another person.
LATEST NEWS
Minister Yuko Obuchi has announced that Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will amend its guidelines implementing the Personal Information Protection Law, Bloomberg reports.
Lawmakers in the U.S. are using the JP Morgan data breach to push privacy-diminishing cyber-legislation, reports Tech Dirt.
Three New Jersey lawmakers are sponsoring bills to limit access to vehicle black box event recorders, New Jersey Law Journal reports.
ICYMI
IAPP Westin Research Fellow Patricia Bailin, CIPP/US, writes about California’s new laws addressing a variety of privacy, security, breach notification and surveillance concerns.
In the final post of this two-part Privacy Tracker series on data protection in Singapore, Paul Lanois writes about the Personal Data Protection Commission's enforcement of the Do-Not-Call Registry and offers a glimpse at its ongoing investigations.
U.S.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) held a roundtable in a Palo Alto, CA, high school last week with some of the tech industry's most influential leaders in what he referred to as "one of the first times Congress has focused squarely on the economic impact of the overreach of government intelligence."
The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is preparing to launch OCR Phase II Audits, a permanent audit program for covered entities, an Atlantic Information Services release states.
CANADA
"In a precedent-setting decision, Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench has ruled the province's Health Information Act protects any information broadly connected to a patient's care, even if that information is about another person," Edmonton Journal reports.
EU
In this post for Privacy Perspectives, Barrister-at-Law Denis Kelleher writes, the "EU has consoled itself that at least it retains regulatory power even as it has watched the technological initiative slip away."
Europe may suspend data-sharing agreements with the U.S. if American policy-makers don't improve how Europeans' online information is protected, The New York Times reports.
A new governmental coalition has been formed in Belgium, and the government has paid particular attention to privacy-related issues, including the appointment of a secretary of state for privacy, The Privacy Advisor reports.
Aurélie Pols, in this exclusive for The Privacy Advisor, offers tips on how to turn the CNIL's cookie sweep initiative into an audit opportunity.
Google scored a point in its bid to get governments drafting new EU data protection rules to consider whether the public's right to know trumps privacy, Bloomberg reports.
Fast Company reports that UK prosecutors are seeking prison time for revenge porn convictions.
ASIA PACIFIC
"It is just a matter of time before a New Zealand company director has to answer an international charge of a cyber-privacy breach,"Stuff.co.nz reports.
The Australian government's plan to require data retention continues to make headlines.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports on allegations that Australian privacy laws are putting military personnel at risk.