A press release from the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) framed the new UK GDPR draft as a "common sense" reduction of "pointless paperwork" that would save billions of dollars annually.
Data Protection
Certain types of personal data are very valuable to criminals, and can be very damaging to an individual or business if it falls into the wrong hands. As the world becomes more digital and more connected, more of this sort of data is generated and passed between various sources on a regular basis.
Government regulations and supervisory authorities aren’t just about keeping irresponsible parties in line. They also provide vital security guidance to every type of organization that handles sensitive personal, business or government information.
Data protection regulations also ensure that the end user has a transparent view of and a say in the processing of personal data. These safeguards play a significant role in everything from the preservation of civil rights to ensuring that democratic institutions function properly.
Some types of personal data are clear candidates for regulation: medical records, banking information, national ID numbers and so on. But some of these regulations also cover items that might seem relatively innocuous at first glance: home addresses, email addresses, website profile information and so on. For example, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has stipulations about anything that is unique to an individual to include phone numbers and social media accounts. People have varying levels of privacy preference with these items, but they are often protected by regulation because they can be used for targeted scams and attempts at identity theft.
Given that regulations often take the size and customer count of businesses into consideration in terms of penalties and the scope of protection of personal data, compliance is particularly important for enterprise-scale organizations. You do not necessarily have to have an active business presence in a country or region; simply storing data on or moving it through servers there may subject you to their data protection rules.
The agreement means that WhatsApp will make its privacy policy clearer to end users, in compliance with EU rules, in addition to making it easier for users to reject updates along with clearer explanations in situations where refusing the new privacy policy means agreeing to no longer use the service.
The FTC investigation's specific concern with the Musk era is that the company is retaining adequate resources to fund and staff the privacy practices it remains obligated to in a 2011 FTC settlement.
Consumer sentiment around marketing data collection varies. It’s therefore imperative for businesses that deal with customer data to do so with the utmost respect, caution, and strict adherence to their consumers’ preferences and in compliance with privacy laws.
Among the 116 proposals in the Privacy Act review are calls for safeguards similar to those provided by the EU's GDPR. Small businesses will likely be upset at seeing previously proposed exemptions wiped away, however.
The central objection raised is a predictable one, and one that some analysts believe will inevitably cause the EU-US data transfer proposal to fail yet another court challenge if it makes it to implementation: the lack of a federal-level data privacy law in the US.
We are at the stage where the most fundamental and basic controls on which all privacy and security programs rest to some extent, are at a risk of becoming illusory, outdated, not read and used by a great majority of relevant stakeholders. How can we apply more sophisticated approach and tools?
TikTok is currently working on opening the first of its European data centers in Dublin, as it faces the prospect of a ban if it does not come into compliance with EU rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Against a backdrop of looming privacy regulation, VFS Global’s Group Data Protection Officer, Astrid Gobardhan, looks at the various benefits of privacy investment for organisations – from better security, improved customer confidence, right through to brand enhancement and reduced operational costs.
The WhatsApp GDPR violations pertain to Article 12 and 13(1)(c) requirements that platform users be clearly informed of the legal basis under which their personal information is being collected.