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President Biden Issues Executive Order on Protecting Sensitive Data from Foreign Adversaries

U.S. President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order aimed at addressing threats arising from the use of connected software applications designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by foreign adversaries. Connected software applications are software programs that include the ability to collect, process, or transmit data through the Internet.

According to the Executive Order’s explanatory notes, connected software applications can provide foreign ...

Washington D.C. Files Anti-Trust Lawsuit Against Amazon.com

The Attorney General of the District of Columbia (DC) in the United States is taking legal action against Amazon.com alleging violation of DC’s local anti-trust law. The action was filed in a local court in DC, alleging that “Amazon dominates the online retail sales market, controlling between 50-70% of all online retail sales in the U.S.”. It also alleges that ...

EU Commission Issues New Standard Contractual Clauses

The European Commission issued two new sets of standard contractual clauses (SCC) which can be used to legalize the transfer and processing of personal data that is subject to the GDPR. The first set is SCCs for international transfers, which may be used when transferring personal data to destinations that are outside the European Economic Area (EEA) in countries that ...

Israeli Supreme Court Says Motions for Search Warrants in Digital Devices to be Held Ex-Parte and Unappealable

A majority opinion of the Supreme Court of Israel held that police motions for search warrants in computers and smartphones will be heard ex-parte in Magistrate Courts, without allowing the owners of these devices an opportunity to argue against the necessity and scope of the warrants before they are granted, and the search is conducted. The Court also held that ...

European Court of Human Rights Says Britain’s and Sweden’s Intelligence Programs Violate Human Rights

The Grand Chamber of Europe’s High Court for Human Rights has found that the UK’s regime for bulk interception of telecommunications under the UK’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act violates the European Convention on Human Rights due to its disproportionate violation of citizen’s private life in a way that exceeds what is necessary in a democratic society.

The court held ...

U.S. Supreme Court: Misusing Authorized Access to Information Does not Violate the Federal Computer Law

A majority opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States has narrowed the scope of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), holding that the prohibition on unauthorized access to information does not cover instances of misusing authorized access rights to information for “improper motives”.

At issue was the conviction of a former police officer who allegedly misused ...

Newly Approved GDPR Code of Conduct for SaaS and Cloud Service Providers

The Belgium Data Protection Authority has approved a first-of-a-kind GDPR Code of Conduct for cloud services providers acting as data processors. The Code of Conduct will be administered by Scope Europe, a Belgium company. It is aimed at companies providing cloud-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) who wish to be accredited to the code of conduct as a ...

Israeli Privacy Protection Authority Eager to Rewrite the Statute’s Term for “Information”

The Privacy Protection Authority (PPA) issued for public comments a draft position paper in which it seeks to re-interpret the term “Information” as it concerns the Israeli Privacy Protection Law (PPL).

The PPL’s data protection regime applies to any entity that administers a “Database”. The PPL defines a “Database” as a collection of “Information” maintained in electronic form (with certain ...

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