On July 16, 2020, the top court of the European Union (CJEU) issued a groundbreaking ruling on the so-called “Schrems II” case concerning international transfers of personal data from the European Union. It was meant to deal mostly with transfers to the main EU commercial partner – the United States – but turned out to […]
Blog
A Comparison of POPIA and GDPR in Key Areas
South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) will see its final sections go into effect on 30 June 2021. Furthermore, parties subject to POPIA must be fully compliant with the guidelines by 1 July 2021. A number of them may have a head start if they already adhere to established data protection guidelines such […]
HIPAA, the GDPR and MedTech
There are different regulations on how medical data can be processed and stored in different nations. If your company operates in the MedTech sector in the Western world most likely you have at least heard of HIPAA or the GDPR. This article aims at analysing how both legislations relate to healthcare. The article is particularly […]
How to appoint a data protection officer?
Who should be appointed as DPO? This can either be an internal position, or can be assigned based on a service contract. Any assignment of a DPO should be free of conflict of interest, and should report to the highest body in the organisation. While a DPO could also have another position in the company, […]
Response to the GDPR-relevant points in the German Blockchain Strategy of September 2019
On September 12, the German Federal Ministry of Economy and Energy, and the German Federal Ministry of Finance published the German Federal Blockchain Strategy (German, PDF). After analysing the statements relating to Data Protection and GDPR, here is some high level response to the key points. Blockchain Strategy Implementation Principles [p5] “IT-Sicherheit und Datenschutz garantieren: […]
GDPR compliant products debunked: it’s all about HOW you use it
I’ve seen this a bit too often lately: products that qualify themselves as ‘GDPR compliant’, falsely leaving the impression that by using that product, an organisation will be GDPR compliant. In particular some blockchain products like to label themselves as ‘GDPR compliant blockchain’ – as in the public opinion there are massive problems surrounding blockchain […]
GDPR’s Right to be Forgotten in Blockchain: it’s not black and white.
There have been many discussions about the big problem of the right to be forgotten (right to erasure, Article 17) under the GDPR. As blockchain generally is immutable, and the GDPR requires personal data to be deleted. Many people therefor conclude that it is impossible to store any kind of personal data on a blockchain. […]
The GDPR Canvas
The GDPR Canvas & how to use it Building on our experience of consulting technology companies with privacy and GDPR compliance, we are excited to release our GDPR Canvas publicly under a creative commons license. The GDPR Canvas is inspired by the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder of Strategyzer. It was designed by TechGDPR to aid […]
What is the difference between personally identifiable information (PII) and personal data?
When organisations seek to protect their user’s data, it is necessary that they understand the data they need to safeguard. Personal data, in the context of GDPR, covers a much wider range of information than personally identifiable information (PII), commonly used in North America. In other words, while all PII is considered personal data, not all […]
Personal data and cold calling under the GDPR
A personal data focused analysis of how to practice cold calling in compliance with the GDPR. Cold calling individuals is like throwing a rock in a pond with the hope of catching a fish. Obviously, the success rate is high enough to justify manning the phone with a single person all the way up to […]