Information Governance (InfoGovernance) is the specification of decision rights and an accountability framework to encourage desirable behavior in the valuation, creation, storage, use, archiving and deletion of information. It includes the processes, roles, standards and metrics that ensure the effective and efficient use of information to enable an organization to achieve its goals. Information governance should be an element in planning an enterprise's information architecture.

(Gartner Hype Cycle for Legal and Regulatory Information Governance, 2009, December 2009).

An Engagement Area (EA) is an area where the commander of a military force intends to contain and destroy an enemy force with the massed effects of all available weapons systems.

(FM 1-02, Operational Terms and Graphics, September 2004).

Friday, February 6, 2015

Top 10 International Privacy Developments of 2014

By Dan Cooper and Maria-Martina Yalamova
Safe Harbor Under Review.  2014 saw a continuation of the uncertainty around the future of the EU-U.S. Safe Harbor Agreement.  In March 2014, the European Parliament voted to suspend the Agreement as a result of Edward Snowden’s revelations on the mass surveillance carried out by the U.S. Government.  Following on from the Parliament’s vote, the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue continues to negotiate the areas where the Safe Harbor Agreement can be improved, as detailed in our blog posthere.  The dialogue seeks to reach agreement on 13 areas of potential improvement proposed by the European Commission in its report of 2013.  Eleven out of the 13 recommendations were close to final agreement by end of 2014; the final two are the most contentious, as they involve the activities of U.S. intelligence agencies.  The uncertainty was reiterated by Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for Digital Single Market, who said he might be willing to suspend the Agreement unless the security of EU citizens’ data could be guaranteed by the U.S.  Looking ahead, the CJEU is expected to examine the legality of the Safe Harbor Agreement in 2015 following a referral from Ireland’s High Court of a casebrought by privacy activist Max Schrems against the Irish Data Protection Commissioner effectively challenging the validity of Safe Harbor in Europe in relation to transfers from Facebook Ireland to Facebook’s U.S. parent company.