On July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU” or “Court”) issued a significant judgment in Case C-311/18 (“Schrems II decision”) on the adequacy of protection provided by the EU-US Data Protection Shield. The court concluded that the Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) issued by the European Commission for the transfer of

On December 6, 2019, the FTC issued an opinion finding that Cambridge Analytica, they had engaged in deceptive practices to collect personal information from several users of Facebook for purposes of voter profiling and targeting.  In addition, the Commission found that Cambridge Analytica had engaged in deceptive practices regarding its participation in the EU-US Privacy

This last week saw significant compliance and enforcement activity with respect to both GDPR and the FTC.  Specifically, we saw two significant GDPR fines handed down by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) against British Airways (approx. $230 million) and Marriott International (approx. $130 million).  In addition, Facebook settled with the FTC for the largest

Over a dozen lawsuits have been filed by users and investors against Facebook after it was revealed last month that Cambridge Analytica, a political research firm, obtained personal information on millions of Facebook users. Cambridge Analytica obtained the data through a personality test app linked to Facebook accounts. Many of the lawsuits claim the information

A Berlin regional court recently ruled that Facebook’s use of personal data was illegal because the social media platform did not adequately secure the informed consent of its users. A German consumer rights group, the Federal of German Consumer Organisations (vzvb) said that Facebook’s default settings and some of its terms of service were in

On January 28, 2017, as part of Data Privacy Day, Facebook shared its data privacy principles for the first time. In a blog post drafted by Erin Egan, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer, Facebook posted these principles to help users understand how data is used and managed on the site. Among other things, Facebook’s data privacy

Woman Touching Screen Electronic Tablet Hand.Project Manager Researching ProcessOn November 11, 2016, Facebook announced to USA TODAY that it would no longer allow advertisers to exclude specific racial and ethnic groups when placing ads related to housing, credit or employment, according to a statement by Erin Egan, Facebook’s vice-president of U.S. public policy to USA Today.  According to the news article, Facebook will also require advertisers to affirm that they will not place discriminatory ads on Facebook, and will plan to offer educational materials to help advertisers understand their obligations.

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