Omer Tene, Managing Director, Tene & Associates is reporting on the court's decision:In a highly important decision, the Tel Aviv District Court annulled a forum selection clause in a clickwrap contract, holding the user was not sufficiently aware of the choice of foreign forum or of the fact he was contracting with a foreign company; and had not clearly consented to such choice.
Late last week Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the Personal Data Protection and Breach Accountability Act of 2011, S.1535, that if ultimately passed would levy significant penalties for identify theft and other "violations of data privacy and security," criminalize as felonies the installation of software that collects "sensitive" PII without clear and conspicuous notice and consent, and specifies requirements that companies collecting or storing the online data of more than 10,000 individuals adhere to data storage guidelines, including auditing the information security practices of contractors and third party business entities. Penalties include up to $10,000 per violation per day up to a maximum of $20,000,000 per violation per individual.
Dan Or-Hof, a privacy and technology partner at the Israeli law firm Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer is reporting that new regulations and orders introduced by Israel's Ministers Committee for Biometric Applications set the ground for a two-year biometric IDs issuance trial period. The Ministry of Home Affairs is making final preparations to start issuing the IDs that will contain encoded fingerprints and facial image, and will be stored in a national database. A campaign led by privacy activists against the controversial biometric database has failed to yield a positive result so far.
The UK Information Commissioner's Office announces new rules for website cookies, which will normally require explicit user consent.
Dan Or-Hof, a privacy and technology partner at the Israeli law firm Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer is reporting that a decision by Israel's National Labor Court imposes severe restrictions on the employers' ability to monitor employee emails. Organizations with employees in Israel must promptly take steps to verify that their employee monitoring policies and practices in the country are consistent with the ruling.
Dan Or-Hof, a privacy and technology partner at the Israeli law firm Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer is reporting that the EU Commission published the much-anticipated announcement on the adequacy of data protection law in Israel. Published on January 31, 2011, the decision adopted by the Commission determines that Israel provides an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the EU, however only in relation to automated international data transfers and to automated processing of data in Israel.
As reported by Dan Or-Hof, Manager of the Information Technology, Internet and Copyright group at the Israeli law firm of Pearl Cohen Zedek & Latzer, in a first of its kind decision, the Tel-Aviv district court ruled on November 30, 2010 that a subscriber of cellular services does not have a general right to have his phone records deleted.
Mexico has joined the ranks of more than 50 countries that have enacted omnibus data privacy laws covering the private sector. The new Federal Law on the Protection of Personal Data Held by Private Parties (Ley federal de protección de datos personales en posesión de los particulares) (the "Law") was published on July 5, 2010 and took effect on July 6. IAPP has released an unofficial English translation. The Law will have an impact on the many US-based companies that operate or advertise in Mexico, as well as those that use Spanish-language call centers and other support services located in Mexico.