Meta received a GDPR fine of €390M (210 million and €180 million fines for Facebook and Instagram) and accused the company of lacking proper legal grounds to process millions of Europeans’ with its data-fueled advertising model. Meta strongly disagree with the DPC’s final decision, and believes to fully comply with GDPR by relying on Contractual […]
The US government demands direct access to databases of European police services containing biometric data of European citizens. The US makes this entry mandatory for countries participating in the so-called Visa Waiver Program, which allows citizens of certain countries to travel to the United States without a visa. At the beginning of this year, US […]
The Irish privacy regulator DPC has imposed a GDPR fine of 265 million euros, around a €0.5 fine per leaked dataset, on Meta for a major data breach at Facebook that left the data of 533 million users on the street. Last year, Ireland’s data protection authority launched an investigation after media reported about a […]
German privacy regulators have ruled that the use Microsoft 365 by governments, companies and educational institutions is in violation of GDPR. Only by taking additional technical measures is it possible to use the software in Germany. This was the opinion of the German regulators during the Datenschutzkonferenz (DSK) that took place last week (see below […]
Free service offers such as Office365 and Google Workspace are excluded from public procurement according to the French Ministry. Their position reflects ongoing European concerns about cloud data sovereignty, competition, and privacy rules. Paid versions of these cloud services might be an option if they hadn’t already been disallowed based on worries about data safety. […]
The CNIL pronounced against the company Discord INC. a fine of 800,000 euros for failing to comply with several GDPR obligations, in particular with regard to retention periods and the security of personal data. Discord is a voice over IP (technology that allows users to chat via their microphone and/or webcam over the Internet) and […]
There is still no new agreement for the exchange of data between organizations in the European Union and the United States, as a result of which organziations continue to violate the GDPR, according to privacy activist Max Schrems. After the European Court of Justice declared the Privacy Shield treaty invalid in 2020, new agreements are […]
Danish organizations and companies are no longer allowed to use Google Analytics unless they take additional measures such as setting up a proxy, the Danish privacy regulator has ruled. In doing so, the Danish data protection authority follows other European privacy regulators, including those from Austria, Italy and France, who also prohibit the use of […]
Oracle is an important part of the tracking and data industry. It has claimed to have amassed detailed dossiers on 5 billion people, and generates $42.4 billion in annual revenue. Oracle’s dossiers about people include names, home addresses, emails, purchases online and in the real world, physical movements in the real world, income, interests and […]
Companies will be under increased pressure after Europe’s top court ruled they must apply special protections to data that firms previously didn’t consider sensitive such as health, religion, political views and sexual orientation. The European Court of Justice on Aug. 1 determined that public officials in Lithuania had their sensitive data revealed because their spouses’ […]