Eagle Alpha's Legal Wrap

Eagle Alpha rounds up some of the most relevant legal and compliance articles surrounding the alternative data space over the past week.

Google acquires Actifo, a data management company that helps companies with data continuity to be better prepared in the event of a data breach. A key investment area currently due to increased security breaches and harsher data protection regulations, many companies are beginning to prioritise how they hold and use business data more responsibly, showing better business continuity. You can view the article here.

With the future of third-party cookies uncertain, US tech company ZoomInfo has announced a premium feature “Privacy Clusters” - cookie-less production of business intent signals, preserving PII, while still offering company-specific early-stage buying signals. Privacy clusters will offer 100% cookie-less tracking of company-level purchasing intent signals. You can view the article here.

After conducting a test on 440,000 popular apps on Chinese app-store, 1,336 were flagged as having privacy violations that were asked to rectify, with 94 apps were removed due to severe violations. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has formulated 11 standards for app company’s data collection, including phone contacts, recordings, facial information and location. You can view the article here.

To be unveiled on December 9th, the DSA/DMA package will be the first big overhaul of the EU’s revised outline on regulating the internet. The new regulation will force big tech companies to share their huge stores of customer data with smaller rivals. According to their recent draft, big tech companies “shall not use data collected on the platform for their own commercial activities unless they make it accessible to business users active in the same commercial activities”. You can view the article here.

On November 26th, the Conference of the German Data Protection Authorities announced their conclusions following their 100th-anniversary meeting. Discussed was the implications Schrems II will have on Microsoft improvements around Windows 10 and Office 365, and also encryption of personally identifiable data for messenger and other private communication channels. They also called for legal certainty on both cookies and telecommunications. You can view the article here.

A draft EU plan for revitalising the transatlantic partnership proposes new co-operation to shape the digital regulatory environment, including by adopting common approaches to antitrust enforcement and data protection, co-operating on screening of sensitive foreign investments, and working together to fight threats such as cyber-hacking. You can view the article here.

UK data protection worries follow a UK-Japan trade deal announced in October and to be passed to parliament by December. Found within the new trade deal are clauses that prioritize the free-flow of data between the UK and Japan, and onto US partners, above data protection rights. You can view the article here.

The Irish Data Protection Commission, after ordering Facebook to suspend data transfers on EU users to the US, is hoping to conclude the legal dispute by early 2021. Facebook continues to threaten that they will withdraw from Europe if the transfer of data is banned. You can view the article here.