Law and Innovation

Fresh and interesting article posted on TechCrunch about the Report of the Advisory Council to Google on the Right to be Forgotten following the Court of Justice of the European Union’s ruling in Google Spain and Inc. vs. Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) and Mario Costeja Gonzalez C131/12 (“the Ruling”) in May 2014.  It should be noted that this ruling doesn't establish a general "Right to be Forgotten" . As explained in the report, the implementation of the Ruling doesn't have the effect of “forgetting” information about a data subject. Instead, i t requires Google to remove links returned in search results based on an individual’s name when those results are “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive”. Therefore, Google is not required to remove those results if there is an overriding public interest in them “for particular reasons, such as the role played by the data subject in public life" (see report, p.3). Happ...

“The U.S. government doesn’t have the power to search a home in another country, nor should it have the power to search the content of email stored overseas” (David Howard - Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Microsoft). Microsoft's overseas data warrant dispute is definitely one the cases that privacy lawyers will be watching in 2015. The fight will now take place in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit . Here is a brief summary of the main issues at stake.  The debate over privacy and technology has intensified. As it is common with new technology, the advent of cloud computing brought with it a variety of legal challenges, including privacy, jurisdictions, and intellectual property concerns. The “idea” that location is irrelevant because data simply flows in the “Neverland world of the cloud” has come to an end. Recently, a U.S. District Judge held that Microsoft must comply with a U.S. search warrant to disclose the content of digi...