Data protection law is concerned with the collection, use and misuse of information that identifies and relates to living individuals.
Ideas of privacy, confidentiality and fairness are bound up with data protection law, but it is both less and more than these things. It is less because of numerous caveats and carve-outs in the legislation, both general and specific. And it is more because it is more concrete, because it instantiates those three ideas in definite rules.
The key pieces of legislation are the General Data Protection Regulation and, in the UK, the Data Protection Act 2018. The Act is supplemented with various statutory instruments.
The lawyers who undertake data protection work are typically intellectual property or IT lawyers, although they may be data protection specialists. The work of a data protection lawyer may encompass:
- conducting data protection audits;
- designing, drafting and negotiating data sharing clauses, agreements and schemes;
- drafting privacy policies and statements;
- advising on the collection of personal data;
- advising on the design of software applications and other systems that process personal data; and/or
- advising on remedial action in the event of data protection breaches.
SEQ Legal and our law firm partners have especial expertise in data protection.
Please contact us if you require assistance with any aspect of data protection law.
