Europe

Law firm Pinsent Masons, writing on its Out-Law blog, reports that the Court of Justice of the EU has ruled that a Czech journalist's use of a CCTV system at his home violated EU's data protection law. The court ruled that "'video surveillance' by individuals that is carried out 'even partially' in a public space is subject to the EU's Data Protection Directive, even if the camera capturing images of people is 'directed outwards from the private setting of the person processing the data.'" UK information commissioner David Smith told the blog that the CJEU's judgment applies to private people using drones with cameras: "The judgment means civilian operators of drones in public places will have to adhere to 'fair processing' requirements if capturing images that can identify individuals and may, in many cases, require them to obtain individuals' consent to the capturing of such footage, among other data protection rules that apply." The result is that the media's use of drones will require getting consent of the people being photographed and videorecorded.

The Washington Post reports on the Court of Justice of the European Union's's decision this week that Internet users have the right to demand that Google-search links be deleted. Europeans have the right to be forgotten. Americans don't. "Those seeking a similar right in the United States have stumbled upon the expansive free-speech protections in the First Amendment. Blocking access to even the most damaging information — mug shots, videos of intimate acts, or Web pages created by cyber-stalkers — can be difficult and often impossible, experts say. Online news accounts of past personal problems are even harder to leave behind," the Post further reports.

The European court, however, drew a distinction between newspapers keeping such news reports alive but not search engine results, the Post reports.

Europe has reached an agreement to protect traditional knowledge held by indigenous peoples, according to an agreement on Balkans.com: "The regulation will oblige users, such as private collectors and companies, academic researchers or scientific institutions, to check that genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge have been accessed legally and that the benefits are shared fairly and equitably, on the basis of mutually agreed terms."

The European Parliament voted to suspend a data-sharing agreement with the United States that allows access to financial transactions for the purposes of tracking the financing of terrorists, GigaOm reported, although only the European Commission can actually suspend the agreement.

Edward Snowden's leaks exposed that the National Security Agency has been tapping the SWIFT database of international transactions "directly in order to extract information, thus breaking the terms of the agreement with the EU. The intelligence agency has apparently also been illegally accessing credit card transaction data in Europe, the Middle East and Africa," GigaOm also reported.