Category: European Union Law

Individual Data Subject Rights Under the GDPR

European Union Law, Privacy Law, Technology

Any company that is subject to the GDPR, among other things, must ensure that it does and can timely comply with requests from any EU data subject with respect to the data subject’s rights under the GDPR, which are:

  1. Right of access – EU data subjects are entitled to know if their data is being processed and if so the terms of same.
  2. Right to rectification – EU data subjects have the right to correct information held by any controller.
  3. Right to erasure – Be ready to completely remove any EU data subject’s personal data from your systems (if anything cannot be removed they need to be told why) upon their request.
  4. Right to restriction of processing – Be ready to restrict certain EU data subject’s personal data from being processed in any manner in which a specific EU data subject states it no longer consents to (even if he/she provided consent for such processing earlier).
  5. Right to data portability – Be ready to provide a copy of each EU data subject’s personal data upon their request, and this can include sending it to the data subject or sending it to a third party. Your company should be able to comply with any request within 30 days at no charge to EU user.
  6. Right to object – Be ready to halt certain activities with respect to the personal data of any EU data subject if notice is provided to you by such EU data subject (this is in addition to the right to restricting processing and prior consent can be modified or taken away at EU data subject’s whim).

Global Scope of the GDPR & Applicability to Companies in the United States

European Union Law, Privacy Law, Technology

So this is the question that is coming up more and more here in the United States – Does the GDPR apply to our company?

Remember that GDPR was put in place to protect individuals from improper use of their personal data and also to allow them to freely move same, and to enjoy certain other rights with respect to their personal data.  While its reach is broad, the GDPR does not apply to processing of data if it falls outside the scope of EU law (processing for public safety, or government issues is not subject to it). If your company interacts with customers within the EU for purposes of trade, and you you store, process or share EU citizen’s personal data then the GDPR rules apply to your company.  Read more

GDPR’s Restrictions on “Processing” of Personal Data

European Union Law, Privacy Law, Technology

At the heart of it, the European Union’s new data privacy legislation, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), restricts what the company’s that hold or manipulate personal data of individuals can do with it, and what type of consent is required for what acts.  Like all regulations, there are a number of defined terms, which must be understood to grasp the coverage of the GDPR.  In summary it covers a lot of activities that companies may not have thought would be regulated.   Read more

Privacy Law – The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – Data Breaches

European Union Law, Privacy Law

We will be doing a number of posts on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) as it will be taking effect in May of 2018.  Unlike its predecessor the GDPR is not a directive, but a regulation, meaning that all EU member countries have to comply with its explicit terms (unlike a directive which they are to incorporate into their domestic law).  The GDPR applies to a lot of data, but only that which is “personal data” defined as “any information relating to an identified or indentifiable natural person (‘data subject’)”.

One of the important new aspects of the GDPR versus any European predecessor is that it defines the term “personal data breach”, and sets forth notification requirements to both the jurisdiction and the individuals that were/could be affected by the breach. Read more