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HTCPCP-TEA
Contributor I

So, GDPR Deadline day came and went...

So, much like earlier events in the technical world (Millenium bug not mentioned) the deadline has come and gone without much incident, or indeed has it?

 

I'm sure many of you will already be aware, but there are some potentially major casualties of the new regulation in the pipeline:

 

On GDPR Day One Three complaints worth 3.9 billion Euros were filed against Facebook Whatsup and Instagram via Data Regulators in Austria Belgium and Hamburg.

 

Another complaint worth 3.7 Billion Euros was filled with French Data protection authority in case of Google Android OS.

 

A general overview can be found on The Guardian website, containing the details of who is raising the complaints and why.

 

Early casualties...Time will tell. But it will be interesting to see how long it takes for a decision to be made in favour or indeed against, and the justification.

 

 

2 Replies
Baechle
Advocate I

Carl,

 

It's interesting that the immediate risk of non-compliance appears to be lurking quietly.  I think that has mostly to do with the nature of modern legal systems.  

 

Regardless of if a matter is civil or criminal, when it involves the government against private entities there's a bit of a paradox.  The court is usually a public forum.  On the other hand, the government likes to keep its complaints low key until the final ruling is made.  Two major reasons come to mind: (1) It's extraordinarily unfair for a government to influence the livelihood of a private entity through making accusations loudly, especially if the government loses its case; and (2) In the event the ruling is not in favor of the government, there's a small chance it will go unnoticed rather than influencing decisions in future cases.

 

I'd imagine there's probably quite a few more complaints out there that haven't yet been discovered by the media.  Or, even that the intention was to start with the "big catch" likely to score much larger fines and wins, then move on to the less rewarding targets from there because of limited government resources.  I anticipate that they'll start coming out more and more as time moves further from the implementation deadline.

HTCPCP-TEA
Contributor I

Agreed.

 

There was always an appetite (whether publicly admitted or not) to find a "Big One" to make an example of. I'm not sure it will have the desired effect either, but it was always going to happen.

 

The common misconception with GDPR is that there is still "Wiggle Room" to comply as it's only just arrived, with many not realising the last 2 years were exactly that! But alas, there will be an inevitable merry-go-round to look forward to in the coming times, seeing complaints rise and fall, be acted upon or ignored. It will be interesting to see how the plays are made, though.

 

I'm pretty sure the company that is representing the complainant, NOYB I believe, has been the faceof high profile cases previously. It stands to reason that they specialise in such cases, so it could be presumed there is at least some merit in the complaint.

 

Either way, I'm anticipating some precendents be set in the coming months/years.