145 privacy laws and counting…

In this issue we are pleased to present the most recent ‘Tables of privacy laws around the world’ together with a full analysis on these developments and international standards by Professor Graham Greenleaf (pp.1 and 23). Please note the 23 new Bills for privacy laws, and that the 13 new laws enacted since the 2019 survey have all been previously analysed in Privacy Laws & Business International Report.

One of the new Bills is in Canada – the proposal would update the current private sector law, PIPEDA, with some GDPR-like concepts. Canada’s current adequacy decision is being reviewed and it will be interesting to see whether the European Commission’s decision on the UK – expected shortly – will be considered as a benchmark for the others.

On the EU legislative front, the EU Council has finally agreed its negotiating position on the e-Privacy Regulations. However, it may still take some time before the Trilogue process will be concluded between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. Another important EU development is the Opinion of the Court of Justice of the European Union Advocate General on Facebook v Belgian DPA, and the circumstances in which the lead data protection authority can be deemed as the sole enforcer of the GDPR in cross-border situations.

In the US, several developments may pave the way for a federal privacy law – although there is nothing concrete yet. The external pressure comes from the need to find a way to facilitate EU-US data transfers.

Globally, organisations often seek advice from their privacy teams on how to navigate the pandemic, and home working. According to the Cisco 2021 survey, most organisations said they were unprepared for the privacy and security implications of the shift to remote working. The pandemic has also been felt acutely in DPAs’ workloads. For this issue, I interviewed the Privacy Commissioner of Bermuda about his first year in office.

Also super interesting are the differences between managing smart city projects in Toronto and London. Our correspondents evaluate how privacy aspects have been taken into account in these two cities.

Laura Linkomies
Editor, Privacy Laws & Business

February 2021