newtech.law - legal aspects of new technologies

On 25 March 2019, the president of the Personal Data Protection Office announced the imposition of the first-ever fine in Poland for failure to comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. The fine is quite high (about PLN 1 million) and involves noncompliance with the information obligation by a company that harvested personal data—addresses and telephone numbers of individuals operating businesses—from publicly available sources and then processed the data.

Cybersecurity Protocol for International Arbitration: Three international organisations—ICCA, the New York City Bar Association and CPR—are introducing best practice in protecting against cyber threats.

Cybersecurity is a particularly important element of the legal sector, including international arbitration. Digital exchange of information in arbitration proceedings involves, among other things, sensitive data of the participants in the proceedings, including the parties, arbitrators and arbitration institutions.

Failure to protect the exchange of information in cyberspace may result in leaking of sensitive information and abuse of confidential data by third parties. This can result in economic loss, damage to the reputation of the participants, as well as violation of the principle of fairness of the proceedings and the independence of arbitrators.

The EU reform of the payment services sector is now entering the last straightaway. One of the key changes launched by adoption of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) was introduction of new types of payment services which require access to the user’s payment account using a type of interface defined in the regulations. The duties connected with such access rest on the providers operating the accounts, which have a choice between creating a dedicated “application programming interface” (API) or upgrading their existing user interface system. Both solutions are to a certain extent linked with the earlier known and controversial method of screen scraping.

What is screen scraping?

Screen scraping is automated harvesting by a computer program of data presented in visual form, usually not adapted for machine reading. The data obtained in this way may derive from various sources, such as websites displayed by a browser, computer programs, or mobile applications.

An interview with Karol Kłaczyński, Agnieszka Poteralska, Artur Tanona and Maciej Zalewski, members of the team that won first place in the Polish phase of the Global Legal Hackathon.

You won the Polish phase of the Global Legal Hackathon with a solution that you yourselves describe as “a plug-in to Word,” but which has the chance to truly expedite the work of lawyers. What is your concept all about?

Karol Kłaczyński: InteliLex provides quick access to the document database created at the given organisation. In our discussions with lawyers this problem often comes up. The knowledge exists, it has been developed, but searching for it is time-consuming and inefficient. InteliLex helps improve the efficiency of the search.

We recently wrote about the relation between data protection regulations and freedom of expression in the context of the right to be forgotten. On 14 February 2019, in Buivids (C-345/17), the Court of Justice of the European Union issued another judgment on the impact of the journalism exception to the obligation to apply the former Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC). Even though the judgment was issued under the law prior to entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation, it may be helpful in understanding the impact of freedom of expression on data protection under the GDPR.

Register now for the Global Legal Hackathon. The event aims to develop innovative technological and business solutions that help both lawyers and people seeking legal assistance.

The Polish edition will be held in Warsaw. It will run from Friday, February 22^nd to Sunday, February 24^th. In over 40 cities around the world, lawyers and IT specialists will meet to create a modern solution for the law industry. The winners of the Polish edition will receive cash prizes and a trip to the finals of the competition in New York.