Tough Cookie: French CNIL Hits Google and Amazon with a Total of €135 million in Fines On December 7, 2020, the French data protection authority, the CNIL (“Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés”), fined first Google LLC and Google Ireland Ltd €100 million, and then Amazon Europe Core €35 million for violations of the French Data Protection Act (“French DPA”).…

On December 10, 2020, California’s Attorney General formally announced a fourth round of proposed modifications to the AG’s regulations regarding the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). These modifications include the long-awaited proposal for a universal form of “opt-out” button for businesses to use on their websites – shown below without further ado: The proposal responds to a mandate, in the…

We have recently written about the persistence of the four most common varieties of cyberattacks: Ransomware, Phishing, Business Email Compromises, and Credential Stuffing, as well as the increased regulatory scrutiny that companies face when they fall victim to these attacks. Over the last few months, we have observed an increase in another form of cybersecurity threat: DDoS ransom attacks, where cybercriminals demand a…

At many companies, employees are increasingly using non-business communication applications (“apps”) such as iMessage, WhatsApp and WeChat for business-related communications. This trend has likely accelerated in the COVID era, as work-from-home arrangements blur traditional lines between “business” and “personal” time, and many conversations that were normally held in person are now done virtually. A recent SEC enforcement action highlights the…

The big news this November was the European Data Protection Board (the “EDPB”) issuing its highly anticipated post-Schrems II data transfer guidance, followed just a day later by the European Commission’s draft updated Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) (see our blog post here).  In case you missed them while trying to solve the data transfer conundrum, here are ten more enforcement…