Data Protection Developments In Europe, From Whistleblowing Principles To Security Breach Planning

In this issue of our regular data protection and privacy updates we highlight some recent developments in individual member states around Europe.

In Belgium, the SWIFT saga continues with the Belgian Privacy Commission issuing a strong second advisory opinion on SWIFT's failure to comply with its obligations when transferring data to the US. The Commission also issued a recommendation containing basic principles on whistleblowing, which will affect companies which implement whistleblowing schemes.

In Germany, the thresholds for the requirement for a data protection officer have been increased. In France, the regulator (CNIL) has sought to balance the prohibition on collecting data relating to a person's racial or ethnic origin with employers' needs to collect such data in order to implement policies preventing racial and ethnic discrimination in the workplace.