Israeli Court Rules Police May Forcibly Take A Fingerprint from a Suspect to Unlock His Smartphone

The Tel Aviv District Court has permitted the Israeli police to forcibly take a fingerprint from a suspect in order to unlock his smartphone, in an unprecedented decision that reverses a lower court’s decision. The suspect in this case was arrested for possessing 37 grams of marijuana, but refused to unlock his smartphone, arguing that compelling him to provide his ...

Us Federal Court Says Government Can’t Compel Suspects to Unlock Phones with Biometrics

A federal District Court in California has decided that police cannot force individuals to unlock their smartphones by using their biometric features. The decision was delivered in the court’s denial of a request for a search warrant, as part of an investigation of an alleged blackmail scheme carried out through the use of Facebook. The court was asked to order ...

Illinois Supreme Court Finds Unconsented Processing of Biometric Data Actionable For Liquidated Damages

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of Illinois unanimously held that unlawful collection and processing of biometric data, in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act of 2008 (BIPA) is actionable per se for liquidated damages of up to 5,000 dollars and can be asserted in a class action suit. 

Illinois is one of only three states in ...

Israel Amends Its Copyright Law with Additional Enforcement Measures

The Knesset (the Israeli legislature), in one of its last legislative moves before the upcoming general elections in Israel, has approved a major amendment to Israel's Copyright Law of 2007. The amendment is aimed at enhancing the rights of copyright holders due to the difficulties they face in enforcing infringements committed on or through the internet, especially with regard to ...

EU Commission Sets Deadline for the U.S. to Cure Privacy Shield Deficiency

The EU Commission published its second annual review of the EU-US Privacy Shield program which is designed to allow personal data flows from the EU to organizations in the U.S. that are certified under the Privacy Shield program.

The review found that the U.S. Department of Commerce, which administers the Privacy Shield program, has further strengthened the Privacy Shield certification ...

Eu Commission and Japan Mutually Recognize Each Other As Adequate For Cross-Border Data Transfers

The European Commission and Japan have mutually recognized each other’s data protection laws as providing an adequate level of data protection. This mutual adequacy decision allows personal data to flow freely between EU countries and Japan, in accordance with European data protection law which generally restrict the transfer of personal data to destinations outside of the EU. The adequacy decision ...

French Privacy Regulator Imposes 50 Million Euro Fine on Google For GDPR Violations

The first significant fine in the GDPR-era was imposed by the French data protection authority (CNIL) on Google LLC, for the Internet’s giant’s alleged violations of the GDPR’s rules on user transparency and consent in Google’s Android operating system for smartphones.
The CNIL alleges that Google’s Android system does not provide sufficiently transparent notices to users about the processing activities ...

Israeli Regulators Launch an Inter-Regulatory Panel on Virtual Assets

The Bank of Israel announced the establishment of an inter-regulatory panel for the purpose of strengthening the cooperation on the regulation of cryptocurrencies and virtual assets. The panel includes representatives from the Capital Market Authority, the Securities Authority, the Ministry of Finance, the National Economic Council, the Tax Authority, the Ministry of Justice, the Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prohibition ...