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Google hit with threat of massive fine by Dutch Regulator for data breach

December 17, 2014, Categories  Legal update, News Comments No comments

Google AccountAs reported in the Financial Times (London, 15 December 2015), Google faces its largest ever fine from a European regulator after the Dutch Data Protection Agency threatened Google with a €15m fine over the way its stores personal data.

The Dutch Regulator demanded that Google asks users for “unambiguous consent” before it can share their personal details between its services, such as Google Maps and YouTube, the video-sharing site.

It also mandated that the company clarify its privacy policy so users know which bits of personal data are used by its different services.

The ruling comes in the wake of the meeting of Council of Ministers that are looking at ways of makin...

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Sony try to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted. It may not work.

December 17, 2014, Categories  Legal update, News Comments No comments

Sony PictureTri_Star_pictures_flying_horses Entertainment (SPE) has warned media owners they could face legal action for substantial damages if they report the contents of stolen documents that were leaked online following a cyber-attack on Sony in November 2014.

In a blunt letter written by a top US law firm, SPE has requested media organisations including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and The Hollywood Reporter to destroy “stolen information” which includes documents, personal data and emails that’s sensitive data that is now presumed to be in the public domain.

In a thinly veiled threat, the letter warned: “If you don’t comply with this request and the stolen informa...

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FREE SEMINAR – JANUARY 2015

December 16, 2014, Categories  Events, News Comments No comments

City of LondonMany organisations are now very concerned about the likely impact of the forthcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation. This new legislation represents the first major overhaul of data protection legislation since the 90’s and is a response to the significant privacy issues arising from the rapid developments in data management, cloud hosting and social networking.

The new rules will require ALL companies – big and small – to manage data access and privacy with greater stringency, carrying very significant penalties for failing to do so. This new data requirement affects every financial services company in all EU Member States...

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Unlocking the power of direct marketing under the new EU Regulation

December 16, 2014, Categories  Guru in a Bottle, Legal update, News Comments No comments

EU data protection keyAt a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs, part of the EU Council of Ministers that took place on 4-5 December 2014, the forthcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation took a further step to becoming adopted across all 28 EU Member States.

The meeting, attended by Chris Grayling, Lord Chancellor and Teresa May, Home Secretary and chaired by Andrea Orlando, Italian Minister of Justice and President of the Council marks a tipping point in the harmonization of data protection laws across all 28 EU Member States.

At that meeting, the EU Council of Ministers gained partial consensus on two important and inter-related points with respect to data security and protection that ...

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What is meant by “data breach”?

December 11, 2014, Categories  Guru in a Bottle Comments No comments

Hacker typing on a laptopThis was the subject of discussion with Martin Hickley, a leading expert on all things cyber-crime and data protection related. Martin will be speaking at a special event that I’m chairing on 27 January 2015 at Cass Business School that will examine the impact of the EU General Data Protection Regulation on the financial services sector and what should be done in this current transition period ahead of the EU Regulation being activated across the European Union, possibly next year.

Two words dominated the conversation with Martin: DATA BREACH.

This is a term that’s being used frequently in the media and elsewhere and indeed is referred in the current Data Protection Act 1998...

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HAPPY THANKS GIVING!

November 27, 2014, Categories  Guru in a Bottle Comments No comments

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National ad campaign in India urges Parsis to get married and have kids!

November 18, 2014, Categories  Brand marketing, News Comments No comments

parsi posterBack in 1989 I joined the BBC in London and was very fortunate to have met my beautiful wife Fenella who then worked as the executive assistant to the Head of BBC World Service Training.

I often tell friends that joining the BBC was the best thing I ever did in my life and I was incredibly lucky to have found someone as wonderful as Fenella who also turned out to be a Parsi! With a small community of around 5,000 in the UK and just 80,000 globally, the odds-on meeting the girl of my dreams who was also Parsi was not high, to say the least!

Years later, when I entered the PR agency world, it appeared that my impending marriage became a national news story here in the UK!

So it...

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PewDiePie is the future of TV

November 17, 2014, Categories  Brand marketing, Consumer behaviour, Social marketing practice Comments No comments

PweDiePieMy guess is you’ve never heard of PewDiePie, have you?

But what if I told you this Swedish vlogger who loves sharing the latest video games and slightly bonkers videos on YouTube is also the biggest star on YouTube himself with 32,222,075 subscribers and a whopping 6,753,075,673 views.

And he launched his channel in April 2010.

Closer to home, my daughter Zara loves this YouTube vlogger.

And by all accounts so do very many other teenager girls who follow her latest musings – if fact over 6.5m subscribers do.

Zoella screen grabThe elf-like and sublimely charming 24 year-old fashion and beauty vlogger Zoella (real name Zoe Elizabeth Sugg) speaks for a new generation of TV viewers...

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Miracle Whip Factor, brand polarization and Ed Miliband

November 8, 2014, Categories  Brand marketing, Consumer behaviour, Guru in a Bottle, Social marketing practice, Thought Leadership Comments No comments

MilbandMiracle Whip is a salad dressing similar to mayonnaise and is popular with American and Canadian consumers.

Not a subject that you think would stir strong emotions? Well, actually you’d be wrong!

When marketers at Kraft began researching consumer attitudes towards the product, they found surprisingly deep emotions.

It turns out that a substantial number of people love Miracle Whip. And many can’t stand the stuff!

Back in 2011, with this consumer insight, Kraft launched a high profile US ad campaign that made a virtue out of this schism, using celebrities like Paula D fromJersey Shore and the political pundit James Corville.

Some people in the ads praised Miracle Whip’s ...

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Banks face allegation of under reporting cyber-crime

November 8, 2014, Categories  Legal update Comments No comments

Andrew_Tyrie_Treasury Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie MP is to question banks over allegations that they may be under-reporting instances of bank fraud because they don’t want to frighten people.

Tyrie made his comments following a Treasury Select Committee hearing into cybercrime and fraud held as part of its inquiry into the ‘Treatment of Financial Services Consumers’.The Committee heard evidence from Dr Richard Clayton, a senior researcher in security economics at the University of Cambridge, who said that banks are reluctant to report the true extent of cybercrime for fear of spooking customers.

He told the Committee that “insider” accounts of fraud losses are double the numbers gener...

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