The Data Protection Commissioner's office has recently published a report entitled "Data Protection Investigation in the Hospitals Sector". A full copy of the report is available to view here. The report was was compiled following an investigation undertaken in 2017 by the office's Special Investigation Unit (SIU). The investigation took place [...]
Assistant Data Protection Commissioner, Tony Delaney, has recently welcomed the outcome of prosecution proceedings which concluded at Letterkenny Circuit Court and which were taken by An Garda Síochána against a former civil servant. In this case the defendant was accused of a number of charges of receiving corrupt payments between [...]
A full copy of the press release is available to view here. According to the Press Release, "The proposed Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications will increase the protection of people's private life and open up new opportunities for business: New players: 92% of Europeans say it is important that [...]
The recent case of Peter Nowak v The Data Protection Commissioner [2016 IESC 18] asks the interesting question of whether an exam script is personal data for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1988 (as amended). This question has now been passed to the European Court of Justice for determination. [...]
The recent English decision of Mr Adrian Smith v Trafford Housing Trust [2012 EWHC 3221 (Ch) delivered by Justice Briggs in November 2012 sheds further light on the explosion of social media and how it impacts on the workplace. This case is one to watch as it concerns a breach of contract action, which [...]
It is proposed under new EU rules that Ireland's Data Protection Commission may be set to become the lead agency for regulating companies such as Facebook and Google across Europe. In a proposed overhaul by the EU Commission of data protection rules, companies will have to contact fewer regulators for [...]
On Tuesday of this week, the Californian Senate unanimously passed the Social Privacy Bill which will prohibit Colleges and Universities from requesting access to student's social media accounts. Governor Jerry Brown has until 30th September 2012 to sign or veto the Bill. As outlined in my recent blog posts, there [...]
Illinois has become the second state after Maryland in the US to ban employers from asking employees or job candidates for their Facebook or other social networking account information. Several other states are also considering bans, including Washington, Delaware and New Jersey. This week, Illinois Govenor Pat Quinn signed into law [...]
I recently came across this case of the London South Employment Tribunal of 19th June 2012 whilst doing some research for a presentation I am doing for Legal Island later this year. The UK case of Otomewo v Carphone Warehouse [2012] EqLR 724 again demonstrates that employers can be held vicariously liable for discriminatory [...]
Interesting article (link attached here) reporting case in Manhattan on July 2nd whereby Twitter ordered to turn over some of deleted tweets of a user who was arrested in October 2011 during an Occupy Wall Street demonstration. Although Twitter opposed the application, the Judge remained firm except to limit what [...]
Interesting report on CNN The new Louisiana law states that sex offenders and child predators "shall include in his profile for the networking website an indication that he is a sex offender or child predator and shall include notice of the crime for which he was convicted, the jurisdiction of [...]
Interesting article on whether Google through gathering data for it's Google Maps Street View Cars was involved in significant breaches of data protection and privacy laws. After its 17 month investigation, it was concluded that Google did not engage in illegal wiretapping because the data (obtained through unencrypted wi fi routers) was [...]
During a recent talk in Deloitte on "Social Media and the Law", I spoke about the fact that Maryland became the first state in the US to ban employers from asking both employees and job applicants for their social media passwords. The bill, which passed both houses of Maryland’s legislature, is expected to be [...]
Google has ended a legal dispute with a French authors' group over the US company's scanning of books, reported in the Irish times today. It is reported that Google will financially support the SGDL (Society of Authors') development of a database of book authors and right-owners to settle legal proceedings over [...]
I thought it would be useful to set out some of the key findings of the Data Protection Commissioner's report of 2011 published recently on 30th April 2012. Of interest at the outset are comments by the Data Protection Commissioner, Billy Hawkes who notes a shift in the nature and type of complaints [...]
