Article 29 Working Party « Privacy and information law blog. Over the years, the number of on-site inspections by the French DPA (CNIL) has been on a constant rise. Based on the CNIL’s latest statistics (see CNIL’s 2013 Annual Activity Report), 458 on-site inspections were carried out in 2012, which represents a 19 percent increase compared with 2011. The number of complaints has also risen to 6,000 in 2012, most of which were in relation to telecom/Internet services, at 31 percent. In 2012, the CNIL served 43 formal notices asking data controllers to comply. In total, the CNIL pronounced 13 sanctions, eight of which were made public.
In the majority of cases, the sanction pronounced was a simple warning (56 percent), while fines were pronounced in only 25 percent of the cases. The beginning of 2014 was marked by a landmark decision of the CNIL. Several lessons can be learnt from the CNIL’s decision. Furthermore, it seems that the CNIL’s lobbying efforts within the French Parliament are finally beginning to pay off. Data protection law & policy | search results for 29. Art. 29 Party Opinion Parses Data Protection Rules Application to Geolocation Information. Article 29 Working Party - Consent for Geolocation Services, Business Law Firm, Fox Williams. June 8, 2011 The Article 29 Working Party has published an Opinion on Geolocation services on smart mobile devices and taken a strong position on consent, stating that consent cannot be considered to be freely given through the mandatory acceptance of general terms and conditions or through opt-out possibilities.
The Article 29 Working Party considers that due to the level of detailed personal data collected through geolocation services and the importance of obtaining informed consent, the default position should be that location services are ‘OFF’ and users “may granularly consent to the switching ‘ON’ of specific applications”. Article 29 Working Party The Article 29 Working Party is made up of representatives from the data protection authorities of each EU Member State. As such, its opinions do not have the force of law, but influence EU law and are considered best practice. Geolocation Services Geolocation services are services related to the location of a particular device.
Consent. Article 29 Working Party leaves geo-location service providers disorientated after strict data protection opinion about geo-location data | Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP | Giving you a lot more than just law... The Article 29 Working Party has concluded an opinion on geo-location services on smart mobile devices (such as smart phones and tablet computers) by saying that they are linked to natural persons and therefore any geo-location data involving the devices are deemed personal data. As such, under the Data Protection Directive, the most applicable legitimate ground for processing that data is by giving the users of those devices sufficient information and obtaining their prior, informed consent.
The Working Party said that the means of consent must be clear, rather than implied without the user being fully aware. The description must therefore not be hidden away in terms and conditions. The consent must be specific for particular purposes and if the purposes change in any way then further specific consent must be obtained. Users should in any event be reminded at least once every year that location data is being processed about them. Article 29 Working Party Opines on Geolocation Services. On May 16, 2011, the Article 29 Working Party (the “Working Party”) adopted an Opinion on geolocation services on smart mobile devices (the “Opinion”). The Opinion clarifies the legal framework and obligations applicable to geolocation services such as maps and navigation tools, geo-personalized services, geotagging of content on the Internet, child control and location-based advertising.
The Opinion addresses specific privacy concerns with regard to the main types of infrastructure used to provide geolocation services, namely GPS (satellite-based) technology, GSM (antenna-based) base stations and WiFi routers. Special attention is paid to services using WiFi access points and their unique identifiers (e.g., Medium Access Control (“MAC”) addresses). The e-Privacy Directive Does Not Apply to Geolocation Services on Smart Mobile Devices Geolocation data are personal data. View a copy of the Opinion. Article 29 Working Party Opines on Geolocation Services.
Google fined EUR100,000 over collection of smartphone Wi-Fi data | Pinsent Masons LLP. The French National Commission for Information Technologies and Civil Liberties (CNiL) told Google last May that it had to stop collecting details of users' Wi-Fi networks and content that passed over them. It now says that Google has failed to meet those demands. The camera-carrying cars used to take the pictures that make up Google's Street View mapping service collected information on the location of Wi-Fi networks. It then emerged that the cars also collected some of the information passing over the networks, including usernames, passwords and entire emails. Though the collection of that information has stopped, the CNiL has said that Google's collection of information from smartphone users involves the same kind of privacy violations. "[Google] has not refrained from using the data identifying access points of Wi-Fi individuals without their knowledge," said a CNiL statement in French, in a machine translation.
Let’s not panic about smartphones « Privacy and information law blog. Posted on May 18th, 2011 by Today’s Metro’s headline “Android phones all leak secrets” (placed next to a photo of a gloomy looking Arnie for added dramatic effect) was a fitting prelude to the publication of the latest Article 29 Working Party Opinion on geolocation services on smart mobile devices. The message of both pieces seemed to be very similar: enjoy your smartphone at your peril! Is it really that bad? Let’s get the basic facts right first: every electronic exchange of information is recorded somewhere – emails sent, web pages visited, telephone calls made, credit card transactions, etc.
The concepts of “traffic data” and “location data” are defined by EU law and their use is strictly regulated because it is perceived as sufficiently sensitive. This is a crucial point in the context of smartphones-generated data that the Working Party Opinion does not fully address. Location data should qualify as personal data, watchdogs say | Pinsent Masons LLP. The data should be classified as personal data because it can be used to identify people, the Article 29 Working Party said.
The Working Party is a committee made of up national data protection regulators from the 27 EU member states. The group has said in a published opinion that the EU Data Protection Directive's wording already qualified geolocation data for protection under the law. The Directive says that personal data is any information that can lead to someone being identified. The Working Party said it was possible to identify someone using a device that stores geolocation data.
Phone providers can build up a database of information about a person, such as their name, address and credit card details, or even the unique identification given to devices, and match it to regular patterns of location activity that the device records, the Working Party said. "It is a fact that the location of a particular device can be calculated in a very precise way ...
The Secure Times: Article 29 Working Party Adopts Opinion on Geolocation Services on Smart Mobile Devices. IPTitaly. The Article 29 Working Party (the "WP"), the EU privacy advisory board, has issued an interesting opinion on the data protection issues connected to the provision of geo-location services on smart mobile devices. The conclusions reached by the WP are: Privacy issues relating to geo-location data are a currently a very hot topic in Italy after that the Italian Data Protection Authority has started an investigation on the compliance with Italian privacy law of the collection of geo-location data through Apple iPads and iPhones. Do you want to know more on the privacy obligations concerning geo-location data? Feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio (giulio.coraggio@dlapiper.com). Geolocation: Consent Bombshell from Article 29 WP. Nobody doubted that geolocation data was subject to data protection restrictions but the level of consent that the Article 29 Working Party think is required might be something of a shock.
The Article 29 Working Party has published a new Opinion on Geolocation services on smart mobile devices, made on 16 May. It sets out the level of consent that it sees as being required and the nature of the data subject's right to access any such data held by a data controller. It states for example that 'consent cannot be obtained through general terms and conditions', that the default position must be that location services are switched off and that withdrawal of consent must be made easy, 'without any negative consequences' for use of the device. Data subjects should be enabled to access the information in a format that is geographically comprehensible (ie not just reciting numeric references to base stations).
The Opinion is best summarised by its own concluding section: 6.1 Legal framework. Article 29 Working Party Opines on Geolocation Services. Location Data Is Personal and Private Confirms EU Watchdog. The European Union data protection watchdog says that geo-location constitutes private data. The opinion, which was approved by the Article 29 Working Party on Monday, looked at developments in mobile technology and the current legal framework around them and makes recommendations.
"Location data is certainly, in many instances, private data, and there then follows the obligations to inform users, and the opportunity to opt in or opt out," Peter Hustinx, Europe's Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) and member of the working group, told IDG News Service. Private or personal data receives a much higher level of protection under the E.U.'s Data Protection Directive than anonymous data. This directive is currently under review by the European Commission and reforms are due to be announced later this year. If the Commission accepts the working group's recommendations, geo-location could be included in the law. Free Online PDF Editor, PDF Form Filler & PDF Viewer.