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The Biden Administration Announces New Restrictions Against China

The Biden administration has announced a new set of severe restrictions on the sale of semiconductor technology to China. The announcement signals the dangerous standoff between the world’s two major technology superpowers, with the United States trying to establish a detrimental stranglehold on advanced computing and semiconductor technology, which can harm China's military and economic aspirations.

The restrictions, announced by ...

European Commission Publishes Directive on the Liability of AI Systems

The European Commission published its long-awaited proposal for a Directive on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Liability. The draft directive aims to supplement the EU's AI law, still being negotiated by the EU institutions. At the same time, the European Commission also published its proposal to update the EU Product Liability Directive from 1985. If approved, the combined proposals will change the ...

European Union Adopts the Digital Services Act

Following the political agreements reached earlier this year, the Council of the European Union has approved the Digital Services Act, which governs the digital space, the protection of the basic rights of users, and measures against the distribution of illegal content.

The Digital Services Act will apply to every provider of online services offered to recipients established or located in ...

Significant Fines on Both Sides of the Atlantic for Failures to Protect Personal Data

The Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) decided to impose administrative fines totaling €405 million on Meta Platforms Ireland due to Instagram’s failure to implement privacy-by-default settings for child users of the social network. In addition, the DPC also imposed a reprimand and an order requiring Meta Platforms to bring its processing into compliance within three months.

The administrative fine was ...

Israel Commissioner of Biometric Applications Reports Risks in the Government's Image Databases

The Israel Commissioner of Biometric Applications in the National Cyber System has issued a report highlighting that any database that includes facial images constitutes a biometric database that requires special attention, even if the quality of the images is poor and it is not presently used for verification and identification processes. The Commissioner explains that this approach is due to ...

Google to Pay $85 Million to Settle an Arizona Consumer Privacy Lawsuit

Google has agreed to pay the state of Arizona approximately $85 million to settle a consumer privacy lawsuit alleging that Google secretly collected consumers' geolocation data on smartphones even after users disabled location tracking on their mobile devices. The Arizona Attorney General alleged that the tech giant used deceptive and unfair practices to track users' locations, even if they had ...

Israeli Government Emancipates the Privacy Protection Authority

The Israeli government approved the governmental resolution proposed by the Minister of Justice to have the Privacy Protection Authority "be independent in the exercise of the powers granted to the head of the Authority to fulfill its duties" and "be budgeted separately within the budget of the Ministry of Justice." The government's decision states that the Authority will act independently ...

New California Law Protecting Children's Online Privacy

Earlier this month, the governor of California signed into law a legislative bill passed with bipartisan support that requires online services to design their privacy practices in a way that by default protects the privacy of children under the age of 18. The new law, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code, will go into effect in July 2024. This law introduces ...

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