The installation of a GPS tracking tool on the company fleet cars has always been a pretty delicate and sometimes controversial topic, on which data protection implications have a critical role when deciding the way it is implemented, in accordance with the principles of privacy by design and by default. The case of the Austrian […]
Posts by Francesca Romana Di Costanzo:
Insurance company receives significant fine from Swedish SA
Another significant fine for the lack of adequate security measures on personal data was recently issued by a European Supervisory Authority (SA) to a controller responsible for private customers´ data. In the present case, the Swedish Supervisory Authority (IMY) imposed a fine of SEK 35 million (approx. EUR 2.9 million) to the insurance company Trygg-Hansa, […]
Update of the Application for Approval and Guiding Principles for the Controller Binding Corporate Rules (BCR-C)
On the 20th of June 2023 the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted the recommendations 01/2022 on the application for approval and on the elements and principles to be found in the Controller Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs or more specific BCR-C, Art. 47 GDPR). The decision to update some of the principles and guidelines to […]
Italian DPA imposes €240,000 fine on Benetton Group
In April 2023 the Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) has fined the famous fashion brand Benetton with 240,000 Euros for violations of the GDPR related to marketing practices involving consumer data. The Garante’s investigation started in 2019 during the course of a scheduled investigation related to marketing activities and […]
The EDPB releases report of the outcome of the cookie banner task force
Following the massive number of draft complaints (over 500) to companies implementing allegedly unlawful cookie banners issued in May 2021 by the non-profit organization NOYB, the EDPB decided to set up a task force composed of delegations of the EU Supervisory Authorities (SAs) to coordinate the response to complaints filed with several European SAs by […]
The priorities set by the Belgian Data Protection Authority for the 2023 Agenda
At the end of last year, in the context of setting the 2023 budget, the Belgian Data Protection Authority (Autorité de protection des données/ Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit or APD) has highlighted the main topics that will be the focus of this year’s agenda, depending on the capacity of the authority, as the APD mentioned in its press […]
Over €500.000 fine for a German e-Commerce company having appointed a DPO with a conflict of interest
The fine has been issued by the Berlin Supervisory Authority (Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit – BlnBDI) on the 20th of September to an e-Commerce company following to the identification of a conflict of interest among the roles of the appointed Data Protection Officer (DPO), as mentioned in the authority’s press release. The DPO […]
Spanish Supreme Court: Data subjects can submit their complaint directly to a supervisory authority
According to a decision of the Spanish Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) of July 2022, filing a request to exercise the data subject rights with the data controller is not a prerequisite for filing a complaint to the relevant Supervisory Authority for an alleged breach of the GDPR. The decision was issued after a complaint of […]
Delay in reporting a data breach caused a fine of over €400,000 to Booking.com.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority has recently issued a fine of €475,000 to the online touristic operator Booking.com for having notified a data breach to the DPA with a sensible delay. The data breach The staff of about 40 Hotels located in the United Arab Emirates were cheated by a telephone scam and convinced to […]
Massive leak of personal data at scraping company SocialArk
Over 300 million social account records, originating from several platforms including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, were recently exposed through a massive data leak from the cloud of SocialArks. More than 400GB of public and private account data of about 214 million social media users across the world have been affected by this massive data leak. […]
Italian Antitrust ( AGCM) fines Facebook for 10 Million Euros.
At the end of last year, the Italian Authority for the competition in the marked has closed the investigations running since April 2018 against Facebook Ireland and its parent company Facebook Inc. for alleged violations of the consumers code by issuing a fine to the company of 10 Million Euros. According to the Italian Authority, […]
The UK DPA imposes a fine to an online leading mother and baby club
At the beginning of August 2018, the UK Information Commissioner (ICO) issued a fine of £ 140.000 To “Lifecycle Marketing (Mother and Baby) ” Ltd or “LCMB”, also known as “Emma´s Diary” for the illegal collection and sale of personal data of more that 1 million people to a marketing company hired by a political […]
New fine to Facebook from the Spanish Data protection Authority
The Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD) has condemned Facebook Inc. to the payment of a sanction of 1,200,000 Euros for the existence of two serious and one very serious infringements of Data Protection Law. According to the Agency, Facebook treats personal data for advertising purposes without express consent of the data subjects and does not […]
The Data Protection Officer in Europe
The EU Regulation 2016/679 on the protection of personal data (GDPR) repealing Directive 95/46/EC focusses, among the others, on a particular topic that will be governed by new specific and more consistent rules: the Data Protection Officer (DPO). This figure is already well known to European companies and institutions, but the GDPR finally clarifies and […]
Fines to Facebook and WhatsApp for breach of privacy and antitrust law
€ 150 Million fine to Facebook by French Data Protection Authority Last week, the French Data Protection Authority (DPA) has condemned Facebook Inc. and Facebook Ireland to the payment of a € 150 million fine. The sanction is part of a joint investigation carried out by the data protection authorities of France, German Land of […]