Belgium Rules Sifting of Bank Data Illegal
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PARIS, Sept. 29 -- A secret U.S. program to monitor millions of international financial transactions for terrorist links violated Belgian and European law and will have to be changed, the Belgian government said Thursday.
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New UK tax rules intended to eradicate a multi-billion pound fraud come into effect today.
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BPI: You don't have to show us any stinkin' personal data Analysis Internet users in the UK can safely ignore this week's EU Courts of Justice ruling on data protection for filesharing: it's already irrelevant.â¦
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The Financial Services Authority said Thursday it had fined the Bank of Ireland for breaching regulations intended to prevent money laundering.
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Privacy chiefs impose deadline Privacy chiefs have given Europe's banks a September deadline for alerting customers that their financial transactions could be tracked by US security agencies. Customers must be warned that even transactions within Europe could be monitored, they said.â¦
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A Belgian Internet service provider has appealed a ruling that it must block illegal file-sharing on its network in a case that tests two European Union directives concerning copyright and the extent of responsibility that ISPs have for transmitted content.
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(InfoWorld) - A law allowing security officials in Germany to create the largest and most comprehensive pool of personal data ever amassed in the country goes into effect Thursday as the European Union's largest member state moves to protect itself against possible terrorist attacks. The databases of nearly 40 different agencies, including the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), will be linked to allow authorities to run searches on suspected individuals and retrieve information within minutes. Support for the security measure has grown in Germany and many other E.U. member states that worry about their national security being increasingly threatened by international terrorism, organized crime, and illegal immigration. To what extent the numerous databases are already linked -- BKA alone has more than 100 -- and how access to data will be controlled are details the German government isn't prepared to disclose. What is know is that an expanded index file will be created for suspected terrorists. The file will contain the person's name, bank account number, telephone number, e-mail address, driver's license information and other data, including the names of companies, organizations and other parties associated with the person and linked to terrorist groups. Germany is at the forefrontÂ of European efforts to fight terrorism. In a December meeting of E.U. justice ministers in Dresden, the German government sought support for a package of measures that could give police and other security forces in the region unprecedented access to a range of individuals' personal data. The measures, known as the Treaty of Plum after the German town where the accord was signed by several E.U. member states in 2005, would allow police and other security agencies in different countries to search each other's databases for DNA records, fingerprints, vehicle registrations and other personal information. During its E.U. presidency, Germany hopes to muster enough support to turn the private Treaty of Plum into E.U. law. Â
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US multinational fined for laissez-faire approach The French data protection authority has fined a subsidiary of US firm Tyco Healthcare over the transfer of employee information across borders and inadequate data safeguards. Tyco Healthcare France was fined â¬30,000.â¦
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A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a part of the US Patriot Act that allows the FBI to demand company records from businesses without court approval is unconstitutional.
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Dutch authorities have issued their first fines for spam originating in the country.
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A Belgium court has ordered all content from French and German newspapers represented by the firm Copiepress to be pulled from the Google News Web site.  The Brussels court said the U.S. search engine is in breach of authors' rights and data bank regulations, Expatica reported Monday.
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Google defied a court order to publish a ruling that prevents it from running summaries of news reports and links to articles in Belgium.
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Second-gen documents also 'flawed' RFID passports from Belgium remained flawed almost three years into their introduction, according to a study by cryptographic researchers.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - A court has ruled that the Belgian ISP Scarlet ExtendedÂ is responsible for blocking illegal file-sharing on its network, setting a precedent that could affect other ISPs in Europe, according to a recording industry group. Belgium's Court of First Instance has given the Internet service provider six months to install technology to prevent its customers from sharing pirated music and video files, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said. If it fails to do so it will be fined â¬2,500 ($3,400) per day, according to the ruling, published June 29. The music industry has long sought to hold ISPs responsible for illegal file-sharing on their networks, although in the U.S. it has been largely unsuccessful. ISPs have argued that they provide a service like a post office or a telephone company, and shouldn't be required to police the traffic on their networks. The Brussels ruling is based on Belgium's interpretation of the European Union's Information Society Directive, often called the E.U. copyright directive, and as such could set a precedent for other cases in Europe, the IFPI said. "The court has confirmed that the ISPs have both a legal responsibility and the technical means to tackle piracy. This is a decision that we hope will set the mold for government policy and for courts in other countries in Europe and around the world," IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said in a statement. The case stems from a lawsuit filed against the ISP TiscaliÂ by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers, known as SABAM. Tiscali later sold its Belgian operation to Scarlet Belgie Holding, and the former Tiscali business became Scarlet Extended. The ruling appears to apply only to the Belgian service and not to Tiscali. Neither company could immediately be reached for comment, and it was unclear if Scarlet planned to appeal the ruling. SABAM said it won a preliminary judgment in the case 2004, and the Belgian court assigned an expert to study the technical options ISPs can use to prevent illegal file sharing. It came up with seven, including a system from Audible Magic that creates a "digital fingerprint" for each copyright work and blocks their delivery over networks.
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Police must be barred from storing profiles of innocent people on national DNA database, experts say.
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A customer of Lloyds TSB bank has complained to Britain's Information Commissioner arguing that data should not be transferred outside Europe without the consent of individual customers.
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Swedes will no longer be able to snoop through each other's finances anonymously on the Internet after a popular Web site agreed to tighten the rules on its credit information services, officials said Friday.