EU

The European Court of Justice recently ruled that the general and indiscriminate retention of data is incompatible with the E-Privacy Directive. This was in relation to the now defunct UK Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act but will put pressure on its replacement, the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.

The EU Commission has published a new draft E-Privacy Regulation to strengthen privacy in electronic communications.

USA

In separate cases, Microsoft and Google are resisting handing over data they hold outside the USA to the US government. While Microsoft seems to be winning, Google has suffered a first instance defeat. This issue is likely to go all the way to the US Supreme Court.

US tech companies are signing up to Privacy Shield, the replacement for Safe Harbor, but there’s a challenge on the way to the ECJ from Ireland. And some are concerned that President Trump is undermining it with his executive orders. We wait to see what happens next.

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