2022 – Page 2 – Cyber Law Watch

The Importance of Managing DSARs

Jun 28 2022

By Claude-Étienne Armingaud and Inès Demmou

With its December 2021 fine imposed on French telephone operator Free Mobile, the French data protection authority (CNIL) reiterated the importance of responding to data subject access requests (DSARs) within the relevant timeline (usually 30 days), with all the relevant and required information (Article 13 and 14 GDPR) and ensuring the security of users’ personal data (Article 32 GDPR).

Another sanction by the Dutch Supervisory Authority relating to the principle of data minimization confirmed that such DSARs could not be conditioned by overly complex mechanisms, such as a requirement to upload a full copy of an identity document.

These sanctions demonstrate that data subjects have acquired the awareness necessary to exercise their rights, and that data controllers must implement effective channels and internal processes to handle DSARs properly, effectively, in a timely manner, and in a way that would not, in turn, generate its own set of breaches of the GDPR.

To find out more, see our full alert here.

New concerns over China’s ability to access user data on WeChat

Jun 21 2022

By Cameron Abbott and Hugo Chow

A recent report by cybersecurity firm, Internet 2.0, has raised concerns about the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to access the data of millions of users around the world of social media and payment application, WeChat.

WeChat is significant as it is the application that nearly all citizens in China use on a daily basis for communication, payments for services and as a way for citizens to connect through social media. Although the majority of WeChat’s more than 1 billion users are located in China, there are approximately 600,000 users in Australia, 1.3 million users in the UK, and 1.5 million users in the United States.

One of the concerns the report outlines is that although WeChat states that its servers are kept outside mainland China, all user data that WeChat logs and posts to its logging server goes directly to Hong Kong. And the report argues that under Hong Kong’s new National Security Legislation, there is little difference between Hong Kong resident servers and servers in mainland China.

As a result, due to China’s National Intelligence Law which requires organisations and citizens to “support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work”, there are concerns that the WeChat logging data that goes to servers in Hong Kong may be accessed by the Chinese Government upon request. The report states that the data that goes to Hong Kong is log data, which includes the user’s mobile network, device information, GPS information, phone ID, the version of the operating system of the device, but does not include information such as content of a conversation.

Another concern the report outlines is that although there was no evidence that chats were stored outside the user’s device, the report found that WeChat had the potential to access all the data in a user’s clipboard. This means that there is the potential for WeChat to access the data that is copied and pasted by users on WeChat, which is a risk to people using password managers that rely on the clipboard feature to copy and paste their passwords.

We expect to hear more about these sorts of concerns from a range of jurisdictions.

Queen’s speech heralds UK GDPR overhaul

May 25 2022

By Claude-Étienne Armingaud and Nóirín McFadden

In the Queen’s speech at the state opening of parliament on 10 May 2022, the UK government announced its intention to change the UK’s data protection regime in a new Data Reform Bill. This follows a consultation last Autumn on how the UK GDPR could be reformed following the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU).

The government claims that the new Bill would:

Create a data protection framework focused on “privacy outcomes” that would reduce the burdens on businesses, and a “clearer regulatory environment” to encourage “responsible innovation”.
Ensure that citizens’ data is “protected to a gold standard”, while enabling more efficient sharing of data between public bodies.
Modernise the Information Commissioner’s Office and require it to be “more accountable to Parliament and the public”.

The Queen’s speech also announced plans to replace the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law. According to the government a new “Bill of Rights” would “end the abuse of the human rights framework and restore some common sense to [the] justice system”. This would be achieved by “establishing the primacy of UK case law”, which means that UK courts would no longer be required to follow the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

Taken together, both of these proposed new legislative measures could change the balance of protection of individuals’ rights in the UK, both generally and in the specific area of personal data regulation. Their development will be closely watched by data protection professionals, because any significant changes in the UK data protection regime could prompt the EU to review its post-Brexit UK adequacy decision, potentially leading to the end of decades of seamless transfers of personal data from the EU to the UK.

What is Required under The PIPL: A PRC-Based Representative or a Personal Information Protection Officer?

Jan 17 2022

By Dr. Amigo L. Xie, Xiaotong Wang, Grace Ye and Yibo Wu

Multinational entities with operations in or having businesses with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) should take note of the PRC’s new Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), which took effect on 1 November 2021 and is extraterritorial in scope and effect.

This alert lays out the differences between the requirements under Article 52 PIPL (PIPO appointment) and Article 53 PIPL (PRC-based representative appointment / establishment of an agency in the PRC). It also examines statutory obligations under PIPL upon designated personnel and highlights important sector-specific regulations and provincial and municipal government practices.

Click here to read the full alert.

EU-REPUBLIC OF KOREA ADEQUACY DECISIONS FINALIZED

Jan 14 2022

By Claude-Etienne Armingaud, Andrew L. Chung, Camille Scarparo and Eric Yoon

Following the conclusion of the adequacy talks in March 2021, the European Commission has adopted on 17 December 2021 an adequacy decision addressing the transfers of personal data to the Republic of Korea under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Law Enforcement Directive.

Both texts prohibit the transfer of personal data to “third countries” unless (a) the destination country benefits from (i) an adequacy decision or (ii) appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses (see our alert here) or codes of conduct (see our alert here); or (b) one of the limited derogations under Article 49 GDPR applies.

With regards to the adequacy talks, the Republic of Korea agreed on the implementation of additional safeguards. Accordingly, the reform of Republic of Korea’s data protection framework (the Personal Information Protection Act) in August 2020, implemented several additional safeguards including transparency provisions and enforcement power strengthening of the Personal Information Protection Commission (§70).

The Republic of Korea adequacy decision complements the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) of July 2011 and allows a seamless flow of personal data between the Republic of Korea and the European Union.

Unlike the UK adequacy decision which contains a sunset clause (see our alert here), the Republic of Korea adequacy decision is not limited in time. However, pursuant to Article 45.3 GDPR, the European Commission carry out a first review of the decision after three years to evaluate any evolution in the Republic of Korea data protection framework, that would lead to divergence with the EU regulations (§220).

The Republic of Korea now belongs to the increasing group of third countries benefiting from an adequacy decision (including, since GDPR’s entry into force, Japan and the UK).

The firm’s global data protection team (including in each of our European offices) remains available to assist you in achieving the compliance of your data transfers at global levels.

Archive:2022