Key developments
- 🇪🇺 The European Commission adopts:
- Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/914 of 4 June 2021 on standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to third countries pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council, OJ L 199, 7.6.2021, 31–61.
- ‘Adequacy decisions’ for the UK, on 28 June 2021: one under the GDPR, and one under the LED.
- ‘Adequacy decision‘ by the Republic of Korea under the Personal Information Protection Act, on 17 December 2021.
- ⚖️ The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) decides in Big Brother Watch and Others v. the United Kingdom, on 25 May 2021.
- ⚖️ The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decides in:
- Commission v Spain (Directive données à caractère personnel – Domaine pénal), C-658/19, 25 February 2021;
- Prokuratuur, C-746/18, 2 March 2021;
- Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Notice rouge d’Interpol), C-505/19, 12 May 2021;
- Facebook Ireland and Others, C-645/19 , 15 June 2021;
- Latvijas Republikas Saeima (Penalty points), C‑439/19, 22 June 2021.
- 🛹 The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopts:
Also this year
- 🇨🇮 In March, the Irish Data Protection Authority, the Data Protection Commission (DPC) publishes its correspondence with the European Parliament’s LIBE Committee following Helen Dixon’s refusal to attend some meetings to which she had been invited.
- 🇪🇺 The European Commission publishes:
- a Proposal for an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, (COM(2021) 206 final, 21.4.2021);
- Protecting Fundamental Rights in the Digital Age: 2021 Annual Report on the Application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, COM(2021) 819 final, 10.12.2021.
- 🇪🇺 The European Parliament adopts:
- 🇫🇷 In France, the Conseil d’État takes a Decision on 21 April 2021, following the judgment of the CJEU of 6 October 2020 in Case C-511/18 (on data retention), described by the European Commission as ‘raising concerns as regards its interplay with the legal order of the European Union‘ (cf. 2021 Rule of Law Report, Country Chapter on the rule of law situation in France).
- 🇺🇳 OHCHR, The right to privacy in the digital age: Report (2021)
Literature
- Bassett, Caroline (2021), Anti-computing: Dissent and the machine, Manchester University Press.
- Binns, Reuben and Michael Veale (2021), ‘Is that your final decision? Multi-stage profiling, selective effects, and Article 22 of the GDPR‘, International Data Privacy Law, 11(4), 319–332.
- Chen, Jiahong (2021), Regulating Online Behavioural Advertising Through Data Protection Law, Edward Elgar.
- Cortez, Elif Kiesow (ed.) (2021), Data Protection Around the World: Privacy Laws in Action, Springer.
- Fabbrini, Federico, Edoardo Celeste and John Quinn (eds.) (2021), Data Protection Beyond Borders: Transatlantic Perspectives on Extraterritoriality and Sovereignty, Bloomsbury.
- Gellman, Robert (2021), ‘Fair Information Practices: A Basic History – Version 2.21′, SSRN, 3 September.
- German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection / Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (ed.) (2021), Data Access, Consumer Interests and Public Welfare, Nomos.
- Hallinan, Dara, Ronald Leenes and Paul de Hert (2021), Data Protection and Privacy: Data Protection and Artificial Intelligence, Bloomsbury.
- Hartzog, Woodrow (2012), ‘What is privacy? That’s the wrong question‘, The University of Chicago Law Review 88, 1677-1688.
- Kilian, Wolfgang (2021), ‘Personenbezogene Geschichte des Datenschutzrechts—Ideengeber und Gestalter einer neuen Rechtsmaterie‘, Computer und Recht 37.1, 9-18.
- Lindroos-Hovinheimo, Susanna (2021), Private Selves: Legal Personhood in European Privacy Protection, Cambridge University Press.
- Slokenberga, Santa, Olga Tzortzatou, and Jane Reichel (eds.) (2021), GDPR and biobanking: Individual rights, public interest and research regulation across Europe, Springer.
- Thouvenin, Florent (2021), ‘Informational Self-Determination: A Convincing Rationale for Data Protection Law?‘, Journal of Intellectual Property, Information Technology and Electronic Commerce Law, 12(4), 246-256.
- Tosoni, Luca (2021), ‘The right to object to automated individual decisions: resolving the ambiguity of Article 22(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation‘, International Data Privacy Law, 11(2), 145–162.
- Yang, Li, and Min Yan (2021), ‘The Conceptual Barrier to Comparative Study and International Harmonisation of Data Protection Law’, Hong Kong LJ 51, 917.
- Viljoen, Salomé (2021), ‘A relational theory of data governance’, Yale Law Journal 131(2), 573-654.
- Vrabec, Helena U. (2021), Data Subject Rights under the GDPR – With a Commentary through the Lens of the Data-driven Economy, Oxford University Press.
- Waldman, Ari Ezra (2021), Industry unbound: The inside story of privacy, data, and corporate power, Cambridge University Press.
- Zimmermann, Sören (2021), Datenschutz und Demokratie: Überlegungen zu einem reziproken Bedingungszusammenhang, Nomos.
- Zubik, Marek, Jan Podkowik and Robert Rybski (eds.) (2021), European Constitutional Courts towards Data Retention Laws, Springer.
Watch
- 📺 Every time you try and go on a website (2021), Stevie Martin.
- 🎬 All Light, Everywhere (2021), Theo Anthony.
Music
- 🎵 Evan Greer ‘Surveillance Capitalism’ (Spotify Is Surveillance, Get Better Records, 2021).
- 🎵 Trusty Bench Boys ‘There’s One I In Microsoft Teams’. Listen to it on Bandcamp.
Gloria González Fuster 