There’s something very fulfilling and peaceful about reaching the seventh of something. Or maybe I was just too into the classics back in the day. Any-who, happy seventh reading, and to many more!
🔏 Data Protection & Privacy
The European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) adopted a report on findings of the first coordinated enforcement action, on the use of cloud-based services by the public sector. The report reiterates that public bodies need to act in full compliance with the GDPR, and provides a list of recommendations.
The report of the Cookie Banner Task Force has been adopted by the EDPB. It shows that majority of authorities consider that a lack of options for refusing or not consenting to cookies at the same level of accepting them is a breach of the ePrivacy Directive. Authorities also concluded that designs should include information in order to enable users to understand what they are consenting to and how to express their choice. You always have majority on the perfect cookie recipe, but never a unanimity.
The French Supervisory Authority (“CNIL”) fined game developer Voodoo €3 million for using an essentially technical identifier for advertising without the user’s consent. The CNIL found that the game developer used the technical identifier associated with users even after they had refused app tracking transparency requests. Scandalous.
WhatsApp has been fined €5.5 million by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). The decision follows the EDPB’s binding decision in Early December (oh, hi). The DPC found lack of transparency (though not fined as WhatsApp had previously been fined €225 million for this), and that WhatsApp Ireland is not entitled to rely on the contract legal basis for the delivery of service improvement and security.
📑 Policy
EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton called on TikTok to comply with EU Law, particularly the Digital Services Act asap. The Commissioner drew attention to the fact that “With younger audiences comes greater responsibility“, and that strict sanctions are on the way. 👀
👩🏼🎨 Intellectual Property
AI art tools are being sued by artists. We’ve all seen them, and they’re quite fun to procrastinate with. This has been a long time coming- I’d wager on that at least. Artists are claiming that there is direct and vicarious copyright infringement (of), violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, violation of class members’ rights of publicity, breach of contract related to the relevant Terms of Service, and various violations of California’s unfair competition laws.
🛒 E-Commerce & Digital Consumer
The European Parliament adopted a report on consumer protection in online video games. The report holds recommendations on the adoption of harmonised rules across the EU regarding information, parental understanding and control, and further recommendations for the protection of young people.
🔐 Cybersecurity
Fourth round of negotiations for a UN Cybercrime Convention continued. The hot goss?- China proposing to include “dissemination of false information” within. More than a dozen countries have moved to delete the proposed article. So much to say, so little space.
📄 Recommended Readings
Here is a couple of readings that I’d like to share that looked interesting as ever. Sharing is caring, folks.
App stores, antitrust and their links to net neutrality: A review of the European policy and academic debate leading to the EU Digital Markets Act by Christopher T. Marsden
Data Free Flow with Trust: Overcoming Barriers to Cross-Border Data Flows by the World Economic Forum
I am in no way affiliated with the authors or publishers in sharing these, and I try to include mostly open access publications due to, well you know, accessibility of knowledge and science.
