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Category EU General Data Protection Regulation

Creepy or Cool?

April 28, 2018, Categories  EU General Data Protection Regulation, Henley Business School, News, Thought Leadership Comments No comments

When it comes down to deciding whether to process personal data under consent or legitimate interests – try thinking to yourself if you were the data subject (customer, client, supporter or employee) would you find it creepy or cool? If it’s creepy – it’s not the right thing to do. And you don’t need a lawyer to tell you that. I delivered this presentation at the recent IAPP Data Protection Intensive 2018 in London.

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‘Surveillance Capitalism’ – will it survive post-GDPR?

April 28, 2018, Categories  EU General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR Handbook, Henley Business School, Legal update, News, Thought Leadership Comments No comments

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica now face a series of class actions for ‘surveillance capitalism’ in the US – will this open the floodgates for similar legal actions across the world?

Class Action Complaint Case No. 18-cv-02276 has been brought by Patricia King (Plaintiff) in the US District Court for the Northern District of California and has asked for trial by jury.

The class action reads as follows:

1. Facebook is a social networking platform that engages in surveillance capitalism: It monetizes personal and behavioral data which it acquires through real-time surveillance of Facebook users...

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GDPR by Royal Appointment

April 28, 2018, Categories  EU General Data Protection Regulation, European Commission, Guru in a Bottle, Henley Business School, News, Thought Leadership Comments No comments

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The joys of data hygiene

April 7, 2018, Categories  EU General Data Protection Regulation, European Commission, GDPR Handbook, Henley Business School, News, Thought Leadership Comments No comments

Unfortunately, the article in the current edition of my favourite business newspaper The Economist in explaining the GDPR was riddled with errors. Tut tut!

Here’s an example: “Data Subjects can demand a copy of the data held on them (data portability) …” which as we all know is a subject access request (SAR) and isn’t an absolute right under the GDPR.

Another error in the article on GDPR is the bold assertion: “The GDPR is prescriptive about what organisations have to do to comply.”

Er, no it isn’t. Few bits go into detail, like the requirements for a data protection impact assessment (Art.35, GDPR) or a subject access request (Art. 15, GDPR).

The GDPR is a deliberate mo...

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Lack of transparency with Facebook and other social media sites will be forced to come to an end as a result of GDPR

April 7, 2018, Categories  EU General Data Protection Regulation, European Commission, Guru in a Bottle, Henley Business School, Legal update, News, Social marketing practice, Thought Leadership Comments No comments

The Economist reports today (7 April 2018) that there’s been a bit of wake up call for Facebook and all other social media giants as a result of the furore over the mis-use of personal data. Mark Zuckerberg is openly admitting that Facebook data of up to 87 million people – 37 million more than previously reported – may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

As a result of a data breach on a scale not seen since Yahoo!, Americans are looking enviously at Europe where data protection, privacy and security laws protecting the individual are now the global ‘gold standard’ as a result of the GDPR that’s fully enforceable from 25 May – just 34 working days fr...

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Crisis of confidence in Silicon Valley

March 25, 2018, Categories  EU General Data Protection Regulation, Events, News Comments No comments

Mark Zuckerberg’s “confessional” on CNN broadcast on Thursday 22 March 2018 was a blatant attempt at a public relations ‘damage limitation’ exercise.

I’m not convinced it had the desired effect.

Facebook’s share price continues to fall and pressure for an investigation of the company and its dealings with UK-company Cambridge Analytica continues to mount on both sides of the Atlantic.

“This is a major breach of trust and we are sorry about that, ” says Zuckerberg. Right. But you can’t help feeling he’s trying to play the ‘victim’ of some unwitting scam.

Facebook have made one bad mistake after another  – whether that’s providing a platform for sexual exploitation of women an...

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British Government showdown with social media giants next month

March 25, 2018, Categories  Consumer behaviour, EU General Data Protection Regulation, Legal update, News, Social marketing practice, Thought Leadership Comments No comments

Last chance saloon for social media giants, warns Matthew Hancock, Secretary of State, DCMS as British Government raises the prospect of a ‘breach of duty of care’ owed to users of social media services and promises more legislation unless they get themselves sorted out.

Speaking to The Sunday Times (25 March 2018), Hancock said Facebook and other tech giants that harvested personal data from users would be ordered to simplify their terms and conditions so they fitted on a single page.

He’s summoned Facebook, Google and Twitter to a showdown next month following revelations about the way Facebook data was used by the UK firm Cambridge Analytica to help Donald Trump’s Presid...

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First among equals – Hitachi Consulting first global company to certify under BS 10012:2017

March 25, 2018, Categories  EU General Data Protection Regulation, News, Thought Leadership Comments No comments

On Friday 23 March 2018, the BSI (British Standards Institution) has certified Hitachi Consulting Corporation, a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd (TSE: 6501), to a new standard of excellence in data protection, privacy and security developed under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Hitachi Consulting becomes one of the first companies in the UK to achieve compliance with the BS 10012:2017 data protection standard for its personal information management system (PIMS) that sits at the heart of its compliance with the GDPR.

“We are immensely proud of this recognition from the one of the world’s leading certification bodies...

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Killing a few sacred cows?

February 25, 2018, Categories  EU General Data Protection Regulation, News Comments One comment

A couple of weeks’ ago, I was invited to speak to around 150 people at a gathering of the Government Blockchain Association (GBA). It was an illuminating experience.

What struck me was that the digital landscape referred to in the Recitals of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) isn’t the same as the technology landscape these ‘digital disruptors’ are building today.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, blockchain (noun) is: “A system in which a record of transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are maintained across several computers that are linked in a peer-to-peer network.”

That sounds very geeky and techie and of little relevance...

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Last call

February 12, 2018, Categories  Brand marketing, EU General Data Protection Regulation, News, Thought Leadership Comments No comments

The Financial Times reports this morning (Monday 12 Feb 2018) that Unilever, the world’s second-largest advertiser has warned social media giants Google and Facebook that it will pull its advertising from their platforms if they continue to ‘’foster hate’’ or fail to act responsibly in the wake of the exponential increase in offensive and unlawful content that is posted on its platforms and represents a direct assault on the rights, freedoms and interests of millions of data subjects, including children.

The climate has turned and social media giants now find themselves in a media storm where sitting back and doing nothing is no longer an option...

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