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Any Progress? The Draft Data Protection Regulation Celebrates its Third Anniversary

On the third anniversary of the EU Commission’s proposed new data protection regime, the UK ICO has published its thoughts on where the new regime stands. The message is mixed: progress in some areas but nothing definitive, and no real clarity as to when the new regime may come into force.

The legislative process involves the agreement of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe (representing the governments of the member states). So far the European Parliament has agreed its amendments to the Commission’s proposal and we are still waiting for the Council to agree it’s amendments before all three come together and try and find a mutually agreeable position.

The Council is guided by the mantra “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”, and so even though there has been progress with the Council reaching “partial general agreement” on international transfers, risk-based obligations on controllers and processors, and the provisions relating to specific data processing situations such as research and an approach agreed on the one-stop shop principle (allowing those operating in multiple states to appointed and deal with a single authority), this progress means nothing until there is final agreement on everything. At this stage that means all informal agreements remain open to renegotiation.

It is noted that Latvia holds the presidency of the Council until June 2015. The Latvians have already noted that Anydata protection reform remains a key priority but progress has been slow and time may be against them. Where Latvia fails, Luxembourg will hopefully succeed as it takes up the presidency from June.

The ICO is urging all stakeholders to push on with the reform, although they see the proposed timetable of completion of the trilogue process by the end of 2015 as being optimistic. Instead a more reasonable timetable may be a final agreement by mid-2016 with the new regime up and running in 2018.




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GPEN Publishes Privacy Sweep Results

On 10 September 2014, the Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN) published the results of its privacy enforcement survey or “sweep” carried out earlier in 2014 with respect to popular mobile apps.  The results of the sweep are likely to lead to future initiatives by data protection authorities to protect personal information submitted to mobile apps.

The purpose of the sweep was to determine the transparency of the privacy practices of some 1,211 mobile apps and involved the participation of 26 data protection authorities across the globe.  The results of the sweep suggest that a high proportion of the apps downloaded did not sufficiently explain how consumers’ personal information would be collected and used.

Background

GPEN was established in 2010 on the recommendation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.  GPEN aims to create cooperation between data protection regulators and authorities throughout the world in order to strengthen personal privacy globally.  GPEN is currently made up of 51 data protection authorities across some 39 jurisdictions.

Over the course of a week in May 2014, GPEN’s “sweepers” – made up of 26 data protection authorities across 19 jurisdictions, including the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – participated in the survey by downloading and briefly interacting with the most popular apps released by developers in their respective jurisdictions, in an attempt to recreate a typical consumer’s experience.  In particular GPEN intended the sweep to increase public and commercial awareness of data protection rights and responsibilities as well as identify specific high-level issues which may become the focus of future enforcement actions and initiatives.

Sweep Results

The key negative findings of GPEN sweep include:

  • 85 percent of apps failed to clearly explain how personal information would be processed.
  • 59 percent of apps did not clearly indicate basic privacy information (with 11 percent failing to include any privacy information whatsoever).
  • 31 percent of apps were excessive in their permission requests to access personal information.
  • 43 percent of the apps had not sufficiently tailored their privacy communications for the mobile app platform – often instead relying on full version privacy policies found on websites.

However, the sweep results also highlighted a number of examples of best practices for app developers, including:

  • Many apps provided clear, easy-to-read and concise explanations about exactly what information would be collected, how and when it would be used and, in some instances, explained specifically and clearly what would not be done with the information collected.
  • Some apps provided links to the privacy policies of their advertising partners and opt-out elections in respect of analytic devices.
  • There were good examples of privacy policies specifically tailored to the app platform, successfully making use of just-in-time notifications (warning users when personal information was about to be collected or used), pop-ups and layered information, allowing for consumers to obtain more detailed information if required.

Many of the GPEN members are expected to take further action following the sweep results.  For its part, the UK ICO has commented that in light [...]

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The UK ICO’s Vision for the Future

The United Kingdom Information Commissioner’s Office (UK ICO), the UK regulator of information rights, has issued a consultation document to get feedback from consumers and stakeholders on the role and impact it should adopt in the future. According to the UK ICO, the main challenges to be faced in the coming years are an increasing workload coupled with funding cuts and the introduction of the European Union data protection reform package.

The UK ICO expects that, going forward, systemic problems will be addressed ahead of individual lapses, with investigations being triggered when a series of complaints from individuals are received in relation to a problem. The UK ICO is also eager to coordinate with other data protection authorities and to encourage the use of trust marks, privacy seals or other methods of certification to bolster individuals’ rights.

The UK ICO plans to publish its findings in March 2014, along with its 2014-2017 corporate plan.




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