According to media reports, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a roughly $5 billion settlement with Facebook, Inc. to resolve a privacy probe investigating whether Facebook had violated a prior FTC consent decree requiring the company to better protect user privacy.
Continue Reading UPDATE: FTC Approves Record $5 Billion Settlement with Facebook

On July 9, 2019, the hearing in the so-called Schrems II case (case C-311/18) took place at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. This blog entry provides highlights from the hearing, and also discusses the potential impact of the CJEU’s judgment in the case in the EU data protection landscape.
Continue Reading The Schrems Saga Continues: Schrems II Case Heard Before the CJEU

On May 3, 2019, the International Association of Privacy Professionals (“IAPP”) honored Centre for Information Policy Leadership (“CIPL”) President Bojana Bellamy with the 2019 IAPP Privacy Vanguard Award during its Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C. The IAPP also honored European Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli with its 2019 Privacy Leadership Award. Since the early 2000s the IAPP has recognized professionals and organizations making a difference in the world of privacy through these yearly awards.
Continue Reading CIPL President Bojana Bellamy Honored with 2019 IAPP Privacy Vanguard Award

On December 29, 2018, the Northern District of Illinois dismissed consolidated cases brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act on standing grounds, finding that despite the existence of statutory standing under BIPA, neither plaintiff had claimed any injury that would support Article III standing.
Continue Reading Illinois BIPA Suit Dismissed for Lack of Article III Standing

On August 28, 2018, plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit against Nielsen Holdings PLC and some of its officers and directors for making allegedly materially false and misleading statements to investors about the impact of privacy regulations and third-party business partners’ privacy policies on the company’s revenues and earnings.
Continue Reading Plaintiffs File Class Action Lawsuit Against Nielsen Over Alleged False and Misleading Statements

On December 18, 2017, the French data protection authority publicly announced that it served a formal notice to WhatsApp regarding the sharing of WhatsApp users’ data with Facebook Inc. This decision, dated November 27, 2017, follows the investigations led by the CNIL regarding Facebook’s 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp.
Continue Reading The CNIL Serves Formal Notice to WhatsApp Regarding Sharing Data with Facebook