photo © 2008 włodi | more info (via: Wylio)
Not that I wish to blog so often on data protection, but some technology giants would not give me a break.
Last week I covered the (very likely) unlawful data collection practice of Apple’s iPhone and this week I decided to spend some words on the fact that
Sony Leaked Personal Data
particularly credit card data from its Play Station Network.
Ars Technica have been reporting during the last few days, here is the most current update as of the writing of this article.
According to Sony, “It is possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained.”
What is this if not a
Personal Data Breach?
Some of you will remember that at the end of 2009 the European Union updated its Telecoms Package and, as a part thereof, the ePrivacy Directive. The European lawmakers sharpened the provisions on privacy and introduced a data breach notification requirement in order to prevent data loss debacles.
The updated ePrivacy Directive mandates that in the event of a personal data breach, providers of publicly available electronic communications services shall, without undue delay, notify the personal data breach to the competent national authority in charge for data protection.
Now read the italic type again. What providers does it cover? Only telcos, right? One could ask:
Must Sony Notify Its Breach?
Well, seemingly not under the ePrivacy Directive since Sony should not be defined as a telco.
Funnily, during the negotiations of the Directive’s final version, the European Parliament demanded that all providers of “information society services” be subjected to the data breach notification duty. Sony is, inter alia, a provider of information society services – check the definitions of the E-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC). Hence, that demand would have covered Sony, had it only been implemented.
However, European Union Directives normally set only minimum requirements and leave member states with a certain amount of leeway as to the exact rules to be transposed.
Member states such as Germany, Spain, Austria and Ireland did not limit the data breach notification duty to only telcos. They rather chose to oblige the so-called data controller under the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC). Thus, they have achieved a much broader scope of applicability.
Data controller’s definition clearly puts
Sony Under An Obligation
to notify the respective data protection authorities of above member states.
To the best of my knowledge, Sony has not yet undertaken such a notification – it has been dangerously clueless for more than two weeks instead.
What Is The Moral Of The Story?
The data breach notification was introduced as a consequence of recent years’ high-profile incidents of personal data loss across Europe.
Who forgot the T-Mobile data loss or the UK privacy debacles?
Now, it seems, Sony has joined the data breach elite.
See, what the consequence therefor will be.