Insights & News

Keeping Children Safe Online (Webinar) – Key Takeaways

31 August 2022

Bryony Long and Nick Allan were delighted to welcome experts from Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz and Ukie (The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment) to discuss current challenges in keeping children safe online, particularly in the context of games.

Lewis Silkin's new Northern Ireland office to reflect rapidly expanding offering

Press Release

15 August 2022

35-strong team consolidating into a single location in the heart of Belfast city centre.

Another blow for Big Tech as political agreement is reached in record time on a new digital services framework

23 June 2022

No doubt spurred on by events in Ukraine and growing concerns about the societal impact of the spread of misinformation, on 22 April 2022 the European Parliament and EU Member States reached a political agreement on the European Commission’s proposals on the Digital Services Act (DSA) in record time.

Data Protection and Employment

Inbrief

18 May 2022

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European legislation affecting all organisations that hold personal data on living individuals. It aims to ensure that organisations using and processing personal data do so fairly and lawfully and gives a number of rights to individuals in terms of how they can access their data and influence its use.

Empathic AI – workplace data privacy and employment issues arising from this emerging technology

04 May 2022

Smile! You’re on camera! And we are detecting your heart rate, pupil dilation, blood pressure, temperature, and other physiognomic measurements… Empathic Artificial Intelligence is a sub-group of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems which makes use of empathic technology: algorithms that purportedly have the ability to detect human emotions. In this article we consider the data privacy and employment issues for employers arising from this emerging technology.

Employer Takeaways from the Annual Report of the Irish Data Protection Commission

14 April 2022

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) recently published its annual report for 2021 detailing the activities it undertook in 2021 and setting out its regulatory strategy and priorities for the next five years.

Toni Lorenzo and Alistair Hayes provide practical observations on the High Court's decision in Nissan Motor’s case for the Solicitors Journal

01 April 2022

Background: Ravinder Passi was previously employed as Nissan’s Global General Counsel based in Japan. His employment was terminated in November 2020. Mr Passi brought two Employment Tribunal claims, including allegations of whistleblowing, detriment and victimisation (one during – and one following the end of – his employment). On providing his disclosure in connection with these claims, Nissan realised Mr Passi had removed and retained hundreds of highly confidential and privileged documents.

CNIL Opines on Processors’ Ability to Reuse Personal Data

15 February 2022

On 12 January 2022 the CNIL published guidelines [1] on the reuse of personal data by data processors for their own purposes.

Data trends to watch for the retail, hospitality and leisure sector. Bryony Long writes for The Retailer Magazine

Press

11 February 2022

It has been a busy year for data privacy with significant regulatory action and interesting developments relevant to the luxury and retail industry.

Data Protection Day – Top 5 Data Protection Issues: Bryony Long comments for TechRound

Press

28 January 2022

Technology continues to present a growling engine of change, yet with this change comes some specific challenges.

Google Analytics under fire in Europe – are we another step closer to data localisation?

25 January 2022

Just when we were hoping for a gentle ease into the year, the Austrian Data Protection Authority (DPA) decision of 22 December 2021 was made public and a flurry of concerns around the future of international transfers (not just the use of Google Analytics) ensued.

Should companies be recording their employees’ vaccination status and test results? Ben Favaro comments for People Management

Press

17 December 2021

Following a People Management Insight webinar on the topic, hosted in partnership with ELMO UK, the software provider's CEO Adam Reynolds explores the legality of collecting workers' Covid-related data.

Lewis Silkin’s Hong Kong team discuss topical issues in podcast series

16 December 2021

Our Hong Kong employment team have collaborated with Conventus Law on their podcast series “Heart of the Matter – A Podcast on Legal Development from around the world”.

ICO Opinion: Data protection and privacy expectations for online advertising proposals

10 December 2021

On 25 November 2021 the ICO issued an Opinion [1] on its expectations for online advertising, its latest update to its thematic review [2] of the adtech industry which commenced in 2019. The latest Opinion builds on concerns initially identified by the ICO [3] in 2019 and sets out the privacy standards that the ICO expects adtech vendors to meet when developing new products so that people’s online privacy is safeguarded.

Lloyd v Google – the Supreme Court decision and its impact on data litigation

09 December 2021

Now that the dust is settling on the long-awaited judgment of the Supreme Court in Lloyd v Google, it is worth reflecting how we ended up here, as well as what it means for the future of data litigation. After all, Lloyd v Google [1] was the case that was set to determine whether floodgates would open in the UK when it comes to ‘opt-out’ data & privacy class actions.

The AdTech Challenge: Thriving in an E-commerce World - Jo Farmer, Mark Hersey and Helen Hart write for PLC Magazine

02 November 2021

The privacy and other legal challenges that advertisers face in navigating the online advertising industry and, in particular, the use of AdTech.

How to tell if an 'eco-friendly' firm is greenwashing: Victor Timon comments for RTE

01 November 2021

We're seeing more 'eco-friendly’ and ‘all natural' products on our shelves, as consumers demand more sustainable choices. But as companies come under increased pressure to meet their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals, how can we tell if some are twisting the truth?

Irish Data Protection Commission’s Facebook decision – more unwanted scrutiny from its critics?

29 October 2021

In an Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) draft decision, which has been published by Max Schrems’ on his None of your Business website, the DPC has proposed to fine Facebook up to €36 million over the social media giant’s lack of transparency and clarity in informing their users about the legal basis used to process their data. It found that “the lack of transparency goes to the heart of data subject rights and risks undermining their effectiveness by not providing transparent information”.

Lewis Silkin recognised with top rankings in Chambers UK 2022 for Employment, Media and Entertainment: Advertising and Marketing, and Intellectual Property: Law Firms with Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys

Press

21 October 2021

Lewis Silkin’s performance in the sector continues to improve following a strong performance in Legal 500, earning 69 individual and practice rankings – of which 6 are top tier practice rankings and 5 are new entries or improvements.

Data breach litigation decision signals less Warren more peace for victim organisations

15 October 2021

Data breaches have a long tail and organisations can’t hang up their hats once an incident has been remediated and regulatory interactions about said incident concluded. Instead, they have to prepare for the inevitable wave of identikit and (for the most part) low-to-no value claims which follow.