On Hand July 2024
With the UK General Election taking place on 04 July 2024, the election of a new Labour government brought with it a change in policies and priorities as well as an end to the convention of election ‘purdah’, or the pre-election period of sensitivity, during which central and local government and civil servants and, in accordance with Cabinet Office guidance non-departmental public bodies and other arms-length bodies, will exercise caution in making announcements or decisions that might have an effect on the election campaign in order to preserve their impartiality.
In addition to our analysis of the implications of the Labour victory for data protection (UK, EU and global), cyber security, AI and machine learning, content regulation, online safety, open justice, access to information, reputation management and free speech, digital markets regulation, human rights & ESG, important updates in July 2024 to be aware of included:
EU AI Act becomes law;
Ofcom publishes consultation on draft Online Safety Act 2023 transparency reporting guidance;
European Commission finds Meta's 'Pay or OK' non-advertising subscription model breaches Digital Markets Act (DMA);
Google abandons Privacy Sandbox proposals to deprecate third-party cookies in favour of elevated user choice;
Law Commission issues consultation on reforming the law of contempt, including contempt by publication;
Secretary of State for Education announces cessation of implementation of Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023;
EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (EU) 2024/1760 to take effect from 25 July 2024;
ICO issues reprimands to London Borough of Hackney and Electoral Commission over data breaches following cyber attacks;
European Commission publishes second Report on the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR);
US state privacy legislation comes into force in Florida, Oregon and Texas;
Lithuanian supervisory authority issues €2m+ fine against Vinted after French & Polish referrals over data subject rights breaches;
EDPB calls for data protection supervisory authorities to be designated Market Surveillance Authorities under the EU AI Act;
ICO reprimands school over implementation of facial recognition canteen payment system without Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) and,
NCSC issues warnings of Chinese and North Korean state-sponsored cyber attacks.
Each month, Handley Gill creates ‘On Hand’, our monthly digital newsletter, which is updated with the latest developments throughout the month. While the newsletter is intended to be in a readily digestible digital format, those who prefer the traditional newsletter format can export the newsletter to pdf. The July 2024 edition of On Hand can be accessed here:
The August 2024 edition of On Hand is now in progress, so continue to check back throughout and at the end of the month to keep up to date on the latest developments in data protection (UK, EU and global), cyber security, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, content regulation, online safety, open justice, access to information, reputation management and free speech, digital markets regulation, human rights & ESG.
You can access this and previous editions of On Hand via the ‘Knowledge and Insights’ tab.
Should you require support understanding how these developments will affect you or your organisation, please contact us.