Medical appointments on Vaccines in Amazon Web Services

Doctors’ organisations and a human rights group recently challenged the storage of vaccine appointment data on a platform hosted in France and Germany by Amazon Web Services. They sought an urgent order to suspend the transfer of data from Doctolib (a French company contracted by the French government to provide a platform for vaccine appointments) … Read more

TikTok sued for billions over use of children’s data

TikTok is facing a legal challenge from former children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield over how it collects and uses children’s data. The claim is being filed on behalf of millions of children in the UK and EU who have used the hugely popular video-sharing app. If successful, the children affected could each be owed … Read more

EU starts trial with digital corona passport in June

The European Union will start a trial with a digital corona passport in early June to make it easier for holders to travel within the EU. The underlying European system must be ready and operational by the end of June. The “Digital Green Certificate” will serve as proof that someone has been vaccinated, tested negative … Read more

14.5 Million Euro GDPR fine blown away by German Court

A €14.5 million (U.S. $17.2 million) fine against Deutsche Wohnen issued more than two years ago has been dropped after a German court found under German law the property company could not be held responsible for violating the European Union’s strict privacy laws unless blame could be attached to a specific individual or executive.

6 Million EUR GDPR fine for CAIXABANK in Spain

The Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD) imposed a total fine of 6.000.000 EUR on CAIXABANK for unlawfully processing clients’ personal data (4.000.000 EUR) and not providing sufficient information regarding the processing of personal data (2.000.000 EUR). The AEPD considered that the document designed to comply with the information did not include enough information regarding the … Read more

Spy pixels in email becoming the new normal

The use of “invisible” tracking tech in emails is now “endemic”, according to a messaging service that analysed its traffic at the BBC’s request. 66% of emails sent to its users’ personal accounts contained a “spy pixel”, even after excluding for spam.Emails pixels can be used to log:– if and when an email is opened– … Read more

Rioting at the Capitol, watch your privacy settings!

Key to bringing the mob to justice has been the event’s digital detritus: location data, geotagged photos, facial recognition, surveillance cameras and crowdsourcing. So when they stormed the Capitol their apps tracked them down and identified individuals from a trove of leaked smartphone location data. Read more about this article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/05/opinion/capitol-attack-cellphone-data.html

Browser favicons could be used to track you

Browser ‘Favicons’ can be used as undeletable ‘Supercookies’ to track you online. Favicons can break through incognito mode, VPNs, and Pi-holes to track your movement online. Read more of this article here: https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7v5y7/browser-favicons-can-be-used-as-undeletable-supercookies-to-track-you-online

DPA: Grindr 9.6 Million Euro for lack of consent for sharing data to 3rd parties

Norwegian Data Protection Authority issues intention to fine gay/trans dating app Grindr 9.6 million Euro for lack of consent when sharing data with third parties for marketing purposes. User data included gps location and use of the app, the latter considered to be a special category of personal data (sexual orientation). Fine appears to be … Read more