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Latest Analysis
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US Social Media Liability: Quicksand?
Ryan E. Long warns of the US lawsuits currently targeting social media platforms The Set Up Great news! Your UK based social media dating company – “Better Than Cupid” – just got funded. It’s been launched in the US and is slated to be released in other countries. You just started celebrating. But then you…
Robot Judges podcast: An interview with Tomás McInerney
SCL has recently launched a new season of podcasts surveying Technology and Privacy Law Around the World, hosted by Mauricio Figueroa. The first one in the season looks at idea of Robot Judges and Mauricio spoke after recording with one of the panel, Tomás McInerney, to find out more about his experience in being part…
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The Drawbacks of International Law in Governing Artificial Intelligence
Mauricio Figueroa argues why we need to look beyond the conventions of international law to regulate AI Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are being deployed across industries and sectors of the economy; it is certainly a global problem. At first glance, international law seems like an obvious way forward: a platform designed to address cross-border issues….
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New Year’s Resolutions For Procuring Technology Solutions in 2025
Jagvinder Singh Kang provides some timely advice for your procurement projects this year. IntroductionTechnology procurement has evolved over the decades. Gone are the days of just procuring IT hardware alone, or standard software. Organisations have become more dependent upon Cloud solutions, usually in the form of SaaS, and now there will be an inevitable movement…
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AI Christmas Carol 2.0
(with apologies to Charles Dickens) Sarah Harris, Henry Goodwin and Ashley Winton update the perennial themes of Scrooge to a 21st century setting where Scrooge is struggling to stay relevant….. Published shortly before Christmas in 1843, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was an instant hit in 19th century Britain, telling the salutary tale of Ebenezer…
Latest News
View more news >This Week’s Techlaw News Round Up
UK UK government tables amendment to Data (Use and Access) Bill to deal with deepfakes The UK government has tabled an amendment to the Data (Use and Access Bill) to deal with deepfakes. The Data (Use and Access) Bill is currently before Parliament. The government’s amendment will criminalise intentionally creating a sexually explicit deepfake without…
Use of computer evidence in court to be interrogated
The UK government has launched a call for evidence about the use of computer evidence in court, Current principles around the use of evidence generated by computer software in criminal proceedings were established over two decades ago by the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, with the common law presumption that a computer was…
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EDPB adopts pseudonymisation guidelines and provides guidance on cooperation with competition authorities
During its January 2025 plenary meeting, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted guidelines on pseudonymisation, as well as a statement on the interplay of competition law and data protection. Pseudonymisation The GDPR refers to the term “pseudonymisation” as a safeguard that may be appropriate and effective to meet data protection obligations. The EDPB has…
UK government publishes response to Science, Innovation and Technology Committee report on governance of AI
The UK government has published its response to the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee report on the governance of AI. It thanks the Committee for its report, and notes the conclusions and recommendations. It agrees with the Committee that AI-specific legislation is required. and says that it will shortly publish a…
This Week’s Techlaw News Round-up
UK law DBT and DCMS launch consultation on ticket resale price cap and calls for evidence on dynamic pricing The Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are consulting about measures to regulate the ticket resale market. The consultation proposes a cap on resale ticket prices, ranging from the…
Latest Cases
View more cases >GDPR and rail transport: gender identity is not necessary data for the purchase of a transport ticket
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled in Case C‑394/23 Mousse v CNIL and SNCF that asking customers to state their gender title (Mr or Ms) when buying train tickets is not necessary for the contract and may violate GDPR rules, especially the principle of data minimisation. Mousse (a LGTB association) complained…
General Court orders Commission to pay damages to website visitor due to transfer of personal data to the US
In Bindl v Commission, an individual in Germany complained that the Commission had infringed his right to the protection of his personal data when, in 2021 and 2022, he visited a Commission website and registered using the Commission’s EU Login authentication service, having selected the option of signing in using his Facebook account. The individual…
High Court considers cryptocurrency status in English law and key aspects of cryptocurrency fraud claims
For the first time following a full trial, the English High Court in D’Aloia v Persons Unknown, Bitkub and others [2024] EWHC 2342 (Ch) has confirmed that cryptocurrency, specifically USD Tether (USDT), can be traced and can constitute property under English law. The court also made observations as to key legal and evidential links needed…
Court of Justice rules in another case brought by Max Schrems
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled in Case C-446/21 | Schrems. It said that an online social network such as Facebook cannot use all the personal data obtained for targeted advertising, without restriction as to time and without distinction as to type of data. In 2018, Meta Platforms Ireland started using…
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CJEU considers police access to data in a mobile telephone
The CJEU has issued its ruling in Case C-548/21 | Bezirkshauptmannschaft Landeck. The Austrian police seized the mobile telephone of the recipient of a parcel following the discovery that the parcel contained 85 grams of cannabis. The police then tried unsuccessfully to unlock the mobile telephone to access the data it contained. The police were…
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Latest Event Reports
View more event reports >The SCL AI Conference: Key Takeaways
Mauricio Figueroa summarises the key points from the SCL AI Conference hosted by Herbert Smith Freehills on 8th October. Practitioners, lawmakers, academics, trainees, in-house lawyers, and civil society representatives gathered at Herbert Smith Freehills’ offices in London for the annual Society for Computers and Law AI conference. The event brought together experts to explore the…
SCL 50th Anniversary Conference 2023 – Rising Star Impression
Victor Gurr, Trainee Solicitor, Gisby Harrison Solicitors was nominated to attend the recent SCL 50th Anniversary Conference on 10 October 2023 as a tech law “rising star”. “Rising stars” are invited to record their impressions of the Conference in any form they choose (in previous years these have been event reports, infographs and even poems!). These…
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SCL 50th Anniversary Conference Event Report: “The Dragon Under the Sofa and other stories”
What separates humanity from technology? The sudden omniscience of ChatGPT in November 2022 has prompted a good deal of philosophising on that question with the apparent gap between the human and the machine growing ever less defined. There is as yet little common ground on where the boundary lies but one oft cited difference is…
The SCL 50th Anniversary Conference – a visual overview
Gerald Brent, Associate, Addleshaw Goddard, provides a visual summary of some of the key elements from the recent SCL 50th Anniversary Conference….
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Key Takeaways from the SCL Privacy and DP Group Event: Ad Tech – Bring Everyone to the Table
Speakers Anita Bapat (Kemp Little LLP) Tom O’Flynn (Google) James Evan (Verizon media) Alex Abrahams (DMGT) Karishma Brahmbhatt (Allen & Overy LLP) Event Overview With ad-tech a key focus for data protection authorities such as the ICO and CNIL, panellists James, Alex and Tom methodically described ad-tech infrastructure, and the various players involved within the…
