by Desislava Stankova | Sep 22, 2015 | Blogging, Contracting, E-Commerce, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
When you hear someone mentioning privacy and data protection, you might think it affects you only when your privacy is at stake. However, as soon as you start your business’ online presence and even more when you actively start doing business online (as well as offline), certain obligations to protect individuals’ privacy start to exist for you. Many people are not aware that the EU has stricter privacy and data protection rules compared to the USA for example – that is to say that here, in good old Europe, we take privacy very seriously. PRIVACY POLICY, WHY? Here are several tips as to why you need to implement a Privacy Policy on your website: You are required by law to inform users about certain aspects of processing personal data; You are required by some of your providers to have a Privacy Policy (e.g. when you use Google Analytics, PayPal, etc.); You need a way to obtain users’ consent about the personal data processing you do; It makes you (look) more transparent and honest to customers/business partners, i.e. it creates trust. PRIVACY POLICY GENERAL TIPS Keep it simple Do not use too sophisticated legal language – all that legal mumbo-jumbo sounds great for lawyers, but everyone else finds it really hard to read and understand. And a well-kept secret is that even lawyers are often bored and confused by excessive legal terminology. Be specific and include details (not to the extreme) At the same time you need to include specific details about the way you process personal data, the types of data you process, etc. Including a privacy policy that...
by Desislava Stankova | Aug 29, 2015 | Blogging, Contracting, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
We already discussed how to use other people’s creative works and how to protect your intellectual property online, so now it is time to find out more about the legal aspects of privacy when running your blog, as well as other important issues to consider such as spam, defamation, using third party blog tools, user generated content, etc. Privacy and data protection or just do not share details of your neighbor’s PMS on your blog Processing other people’s personal data is carefully regulated in Europe and should be taken seriously. Under EU law, personal data can only be gathered legally under strict conditions, for a legitimate purpose. Personal information is any information about an individual who can be identified and relates to his physical, physiological, mental, economic, cultural or social identity. It includes data such as name, address, phone number, place of birth, ID and passport data, marital status, professional biography, mental condition, sexual orientation, race, religious views, property and financial status, participation in companies, etc. Processing personal data more or less includes any operation performed with regards to the information, such as collection, recording, organization, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission and many others. Simply said, if you happen to share info on your blog about your coworker who broke their leg and stayed home on sick leave, maybe a bit too long, be advised that this may be illegal, unless your colleague expressly agreed on you posting this information. One of the most important principles of data protection is that personal data should not be processed at all, except when certain conditions are...
by Desislava Stankova | Jun 25, 2015 | Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
You are an EU company selling services online (information society services) or you are planning to establish an entity somewhere in the EU and to sell to EU clients. Not a problem, but you just need to be aware of a list of items that the company must cover in order to comply with all regulations for a EU business selling services online. The applicable acts to be taken into account would be different depending on the specific country you operate but regardless of the country, they all implement the EU’s Electronic Commerce Directive 2000 and others applicable into local law and practically every commercial website would be covered by it. The following article covers Business to Business (B2B) transactions, i.e. selling to business clients online. For companies selling to individual consumers (natural persons), additional requirements and specific consumer protection rules apply that will be included in my next post. MINIMUM INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED: You are bound by law to provide at least the following information to your potential clients: the name of the service provider on the site.; the geographic address of the company; the details of the company including email address; details of a register, including any registration number; if the company is a member of a trade or similar register available to the public, confirmation of that; the particulars of the relevant supervisory authority if the services are subject to an authorisation scheme; details of any professional body or similar institution with which the company is registered, their professional title and the Member State where that title has been granted; a VAT number – even...
by Desislava Stankova | May 23, 2015 | Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection, Social Media Law
Imagine your ex-boyfriend posted some revenge porn pictures and data about you on his website and on Facebook. Would you like it removed from Google`s search results so that your employer and your grandmother don`t find it? What if you are a teacher convicted for a minor crime over 10 years ago and that article from the past with your name still appears in search results. Would you want that removed? Or maybe you are doctor who performed a botched procedure and now you really need all your local newspapers` articles links in Google about your malpractice deleted. Do you think if you legally requested any of the above removals, Google would comply and delete the respective search result? The answer is it depends on the situation. All of the cases mentioned above are real and have been already decided – the first two requests for deletion have been fulfilled, while the doctor`s malpractice news articles still appear on Google. Let`s see why and how is it possible. The Costeja Case In Europe there is the so called Right to be Forgotten which has been officially put in practice exactly one year ago in May 2014 when the European Court of Justice ruled against Google on the Costeja case. Mario Costeja González is a Spanish citizen who turned to the Spanish Data Protection Agency to file a complaint against a newspaper and against Google Spain and Google Inc. with the request for removal of a link to an auction notice about his repossessed home due to a debt proceedings he has resolved years ago. The Spanish court referred the...
by Desislava Stankova | Mar 11, 2015 | Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
Internet offers endless business opportunities and amazing flexibility, yet laws do extend not only to the good old offline ventures, but to e-businesses too and like it or not, they should be obeyed. The applicable regulations however tend to be neglected sometimes leading to legal vulnerability of the respective business, disputes or simply customer dissatisfaction. Some of the most common mistakes related to legal compliance of online businesses that I have seen in my practice include: The Copy/Paste Sin Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policy have been copied from the internet and are not fully applicable to the case. In many situations they are not even followed by the business itself. Forgetting the Change Changes in operations and customer service have not been reflected with a respective modification in the Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy or other legal documents. Even changes in the applicable laws are not reflected by the Terms. It`s all about the Contract No written contracts have been concluded with the website developer, content providers, logo designers, etc. to clearly set the intellectual property rights to these works. In case of intellectual property dispute you need to be able to prove two basic things about the disputed work – who created it (i.e. you or someone hired by you) or when was it created (i.e. before the other party is claiming they created it). To read the full article, check Chicoverdose where it was originally...
by Desislava Stankova | Feb 10, 2015 | Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
So, you want to start an online business? It is easy, isn’t it – you get a domain, buy a hosting, setup a web site and, voila, you are cashing in 24/7. Right? Wrooong! You forgot the lawyers. There are tons of them and they can make your life hell. If you don’t want this to happen, you need to figure out some crucial stuff in the “Big L”-area. Spell it with me: L-E-G-A-L-S-T-U-F-F. E-commerce offers endless opportunities with the unlimited number of potential worldwide customers, the ease of purchasing a product from each location, the optimization of business processes. However anyone engaged in it should keep in mind that laws and rules exist online as much as they do offline. Knowing the legal aspect of e-commerce turns out to be one of the key factors about online business success. Since it is a wide topic and a professional legal advice is needed in each particular case, this post will only sketch the applicable legal requirements. B2B online relations differ from B2C ones, mainly in the more rigorous standard to ensure safety and consumer protection in B2C web businesses, but in order to summarize, these are the main legal aspects of e-commerce, particularly in the EU. Light Bulb One: Protect Your Most Precious Asset One of the very first steps to be taken is the domain name registration and its protection. It is important due to the fact that the domain name contract, which is basically a service agreement, protects the domain name in the relation between the parties to this agreement, but it could not automatically offer protection...
