The European Parliamentary Research Service published a paper discussing the options and challenges surrounding the renewal of the UK adequacy decisions, which are set to expire on 27 June 2025, unless the European Commission reaffirms that the UK continues to ensure an 'essentially equivalent' level of data protection to the EU's.
The paper highlights the Data (Use and Access) Bill (DUA Bill) currently making its way through Parliament. Among the key areas of concern in the DUA Bill are its removal of protections in relation to automated decision-making; its reduction of transparency, notably in the area of artificial intelligence; its conferral of excessive powers on the Secretary of State to override safeguards; and the reduction of accountability over how data are shared and accessed for law enforcement and other public purposes.
In addition, the paper also references the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act 2024, which included the introduction of bulk personal data that intelligence services may retain with only categorical, not specific, judicial approval; the exculpation of civil servants from the offence of 'unlawfully obtaining communications data', on the basis that the civil servant obtained the data with 'lawful authority' where that data had previously been made available to the public or a section of the public; the conferral of power on the Secretary of State to require telecommunications operators to notify service and product changes, which may encourage greater use of technical capability notices; and the requirement for recipients of data retention, national security, or technical capability notices to continue providing intelligence assistance even if the matter is referred back to the Secretary of State for review, provided that access was granted before the notice was issued.
What is this page?
You are reading a summary article on the Privacy Newsfeed, a free resource for DPOs and other professionals with privacy or data protection responsibilities helping them stay informed of industry news all in one place. The information here is a brief snippet relating to a single piece of original content or several articles about a common topic or thread. The main contributor is listed in the top left-hand corner, just beneath the article title.
The Privacy Newsfeed monitors over 300 global publications, of which more than 5,750 summary articles have been posted to the online archive dating back to the beginning of 2020. A weekly roundup is available by email every Friday.
