The Privacy Advisor Podcast

The EU General Data Protection Regulation ushered in an enhanced private right of action for violations of the law, both for material and non-material damages. Attorneys say there's now a significant uptick in cases brought alleging such a grievance has occurred, and that they're often brought as a "follow-on" to data protection authorities' own investigations. In this episode of The Privacy Advis...

It's a troubling and weird time to be alive. The headline are dominated by reports of mass death and despair globally, and we're all trapped at home trying to cope with a very new and very difficult reality. In a time like this, it can feel hard to find meaning in the day-to-day work of being a privacy professional. In this fireside-chat style podcast, IAPP Editor Angelique Carson, CIPP/US, talks...

Telecommunications companies across the world, including in Germany, Brazil and China have granted their governments access to customers' cellphone data  in an effort to help track the  COVID -19. Other countries are more cautious; the Dutch DPA called for emergency legislation before sharing occurs, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said a flat no, for now. In this episode of The Pri...

It's a scary time by any standard. There's news every day about the latest number of those infected by an invisible danger that'll make some sick and kill others and to stay safe we have to stay away from each other in a time when we most need each other for support. And when we're scared, sometimes we make decisions based on fear. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Michelle De Mooy o...

If there's anyone we could call an expert on data protection in the EU, it's Christian D'Cunha. Years back, he was charged with leading the review of the EU Data Retention Directive — no easy task — before he moved to a role at the European Data Protection Supervisor's office as a policy assistant under former EDPS Peter Hustinx and then, his successor, the late Giovanni Buttarelli. Now, D'Cunha h...

February 19, the European Commission released its EU data strategy . As the IAPP's Riyan Chiavetta reported,  the document outlines the commission's five-year plan  for "policy measures and investments to enable the data economy." The commission based its strategy on four pillars, one of which is a cross-sectoral governance framework for data access and use. In conjunction with the release data st...

In January, the U.K. Information Commissioner's Office released its proposed "Age Appropriate Design Code" aimed at protecting children's privacy online. The code, which will require parliamentary approval, outlines 15 standards online services should follow. It also provides guidance on data protection safeguards aimed at ensuring online services are appropriate for children's use. In this episod...

It would've been hard to miss the big news this week, news privacy advocates are heralding as a major win: Facebook has agreed to settle for $550 million in a class-action lawsuit alleging the company violated Illinois' biometric privacy law when it used facial recognition software to suggest users "tag" faces in photos they'd uploaded to the site. In this episode of the podcast, Jay Edelson, one...

Jan. 15, Washington State Legislature's Senate Environment, Energy & Technology Committee held its first public hearing on a reintroduced version of the Washington Privacy Act. Those who've been following developments on the state's privacy legislation will recall that last year, despite gaining some significant momentum, the bill failed. The new version of the bill has gained praise from many pri...

Anyone who's been in the privacy game for a minute will likely tell you 2019 was one of the most exciting — and stressful — years on the books. Regulatory and enforcement action, the mad dash to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act and continuing efforts to operationalize GDPR-compliant programs were just a fraction of the news privacy professionals had to track this year in order to do...

Last week, on the keynote stage at the IAPP's Data Protection Congress, data protection authorities from three different countries took the stage to address a sold-out crowd of privacy professionals eager to hear straight from the proverbial horses mouths' what to expect from the leaders charged with enforcing Europe's sweeping data privacy law. When are the fines finally coming? Is the GDPR even...

In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, host Angelique Carson chcats with Robert Robbert van Eijk, who's recently joined the Future of Privacy Forum as its managing director for Europe. Prior to serving in this position, Eijk worked at the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) for nearly 10 years and has since become an authority in the field of online privacy and data protection. He repre...

It wasn't long ago that the number of journalists covering the privacy and data protection beat was very small. Most mainstream newspapers didn't have a journalist dedicated to what were once considered very niche topics. Now, every major newspaper has one or more journalists dedicated to the onslaught of daily news made by tech companies' missteps or the policymakers reacting to them. In this epi...

There are so many privacy headlines in the U.S. right now that it almost seems to overshadow developments in the EU. While the privacy profession was, for years, seemingly laser-focused on the General Data Protection Regulation -- deservedly -- the California Consumer Protection Act set a firestorm in 2017 and then later in 2018 when it was passed. But that doesn't mean things are quiet in the EU....

At the IAPP's Privacy. Security. Risk. conference, it would be hard to argue that the California Consumer Privacy Act wasn't the general topic of conversation everywhere from the keynote stage to breakout sessions to happy hour. From a dressing room offstage at The Cosmopolitan Hotel's Chelsea Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada, Angelique Carson, CIPP/US, sat down with Tanya Forsheit of Frankfurt Kurnit...

A surefire way to take the social temperature of a time period is to sample its art. For those who've been working in privacy for some time, it's perhaps slightly surreal to now see aspects of the profession reflected in popular culture. In October, "The Right to Be Forgotten," by playwright Sharyn Rothstein, will debut at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. It follows the story of a 17-year-old b...

Friday, Sept 6, was the final day for any amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act to be introduced, per California Assembly rules. Lawmakers have since voted on those amendments and we now know what the final version of the CCPA looks like, subject to the signature of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Mary Stone Ross, who worked alongside Alast...

This week, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced its settlement with Google and its subsidiary YouTube as a historic moment and a "game changer" for enforcement under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Google will pay $170 million and YouTube must implement various changes to the way it manages content creators on its site and the way they treat content geared toward children. It'...

Remember when the GDPR was about to be signed into law and there was all sorts of chatter that the ePrivacy Regulation would soon be passed as well? That was years ago now. So what's happening within the EU government that we still don't have one. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, senior privacy counsel at the Future of Privacy Forum, takes us through the lat...

There's no question that the California Consumer Privacy Act has captured the attention of not only the U.S. but its global counterparts as well. What's perhaps even more concerning to companies aiming to comply with the law before it becomes effective in 2020 is the uncertainty surrounding the seemingly endless number of amendments being considered by California's legislature. How do you prepare...

Recently, The New York Times announced it had hired journalist Kashmir Hill to its Business beat. Hill, most recently of Gizmodo, has long covered privacy in a distinct and unique first-person style, often through experimentation of her own with technology products and services. There was the time she tried to quit using the top five technology companies to see what her life would become, or the t...

It's been three years since journalist Angelique Carson, CIPP/US, was directed by her boss to start something called a podcast that could help serve the IAPP membership, allowing them in-depth insights from their peers on how to thrive in the privacy profession and detailed looks at some of the industry's most important news. Since then, The Privacy Advisor Podcast has grown by the thousands in do...

In this special edition of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, two of the people completely immersed in EU General Data Protection compliance discuss the last year of their lives. Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon describes the last year as "a washing machine stuck on the spin cycle; it's been an incredible year of change for us as a data protection authority." And Hogan Lovells' Eduardo Ust...

While it's true privacy and data protection laws are undergoing shifts in many parts of the world, this is especially true for Latin America where there is no shortage of legislative action. Brazil approved its general data protection law last year, and it will come into effect in early 2020. Just as the U.S. is seeing with the California Consumer Privacy Act, Brazil's law is now being amended in...

There's been no shortage of press about the California Consumer Privacy Act. Sessions on the topic were among the most attended at the IAPP's Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., last week. But what's difficult is keeping pace with all of the amendments being voted up or down on any given week. In this episode of The Privacy Advisor Podcast, host Angelique Carson, CIPP/US, chats with Frankfu...