Web firms face EU data privacy crackdown | EurActiv

Web firms will have to seek Internet users’ explicit consent before downloading their personal data and must make it possible for private information to be deleted for good from the web, according to a European Commission strategy on data protection to be unveiled today (4 November).

BACKGROUND

The use of citizens’ data online has become a subject of intense scrutiny at EU level recently, in part due to controversies surrounding Google’s StreetView mapping service and Facebook’s privacy policy.

While the growing number of tailored products and services offers increased benefits for consumers, it also relies enormously on the use of personal data.

Private information can range from financial data, such as credit card numbers or bank account deposit details, to sensitive info concerning health conditions or sexual and political orientation.

The possibilities for misusing or abusing this information are infinite. It has been suggested that one way to deal with the new situation would be to inform data holders of possible breaches of their personal information. This is expected to raise awareness among consumers and at the same time help tackle the negative effects of data theft.

The first sector to adopt the new approach is telecoms. The current review of the Data Protection Directive, part of the EU’s Digital Agenda, intends to broaden the scope of users’ data privacy to webmail, social networks and online banking, among others.

To read more about the EU Digital Agenda, click here.

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News:EU regulators keeping close eye on Google

News:Brussels to tighten data protection rules

According to the draft paper, seen by EurActiv, the Commission is gearing up for a crackdown on how web companies, in particular social networking sites and online advertising firms, use citizens’ private data.

“It is […] essential that individuals are well and clearly informed, in a transparent way, by data controllers about how and by whom their data are collected and processed, for what reasons [and] for how long,” reads the draft Commission communication.

Citizens should be kept informed of “what their rights are if they want to access, rectify or delete their data,” according to the paper, entitled ‘A comprehensive strategy on data protection in the European Union’.

via Web firms face EU data privacy crackdown | EurActiv.

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Legal Process Outsourcing: Guest article:Why Outsourcing E-discovery should be part of your business strategy

Outsourcing e-discovery and information management services is no longer something businesses can ignore. E-discovery and information management services are rapidly becoming critical, highly-discussed topics in board meetings across the globe. Developing a strategy for outsourcing them is a key to the success of today’s modern, Internet-enabled enterprises.

As the world begins to see more and more bogus tort claims, frivolous lawsuits, and increasing amounts of civil litigation in general, the process of discovery, or the process of obtaining documents, interrogations, and other evidence from opposing parties before trial, during such litigation proceedings becomes increasingly cumbersome and costly to obtain. The discovery process was difficult to begin with before the Internet-era; but now with the introduction of massive amounts of computer-based data such as emails, instant messages, and other intangible data stored in electronic format the discovery process becomes even more difficult to complete. This new form of discovery, known as http://ledjit.com/, is not just more complicated than its traditional predecessor due to the existence of larger amounts of data in formats far less tangible than paper.

The e-discovery process is further hindered due to a larger array of personnel involved in the process of discovering relevant, electronically-based data. Lawyers and forensic investigators, who are unfamiliar with the technological aspects of creating, maintaining, preserving, and deleting electronically-based data, must cooperate during the e-discovery process with IT professionals (IT managers, database administrators, network administrators, etc.), all of whom are generally unfamiliar with the law. This clash often results in delays, misunderstandings, or, even worse, data corruption or even outright data loss.

The tasks of managing a company’s data and, in the event civil litigation arises, e-discovery are peripheral tasks not directly related the company’s core goals. Just like the duties involved with payroll processing have been successfully delegated to outside specialist firms, outsourcing e-discovery and information management services are gradually taking hold amongst businesses worldwide. Despite fears from the opposition, outsourcing these tasks is proven to be efficient, cost-effective, and safe.

Firms specializing in e-discovery outsourcing have professional staff trained in tasks specific to the discovery process and how it is conducted in today’s electronic document era. Outsourcing these tasks frees corporate attorneys from these burdens so that they can focus on tasks more suited to them. Instead of wasting time on the “grunt work” of ploughing through boxes of digital tape backups or data mining through hundreds of gigabytes of archived receipts, attorneys can focus more on clients and business development efforts.

When a corporation’s legal department teams up with an e-discovery outsourcing company located in another country, the potential to speed up the process and meet previously impossible deadlines increases dramatically, as attorneys can take advantage of time differences between their offices and that of the outsourcing company in order to continuously work on a project non-stop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

via Legal Process Outsourcing: Guest article:Why Outsourcing E-discovery should be part of your business strategy.

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Legal Process Outsourcing: Guest article:Why Outsourcing E-discovery should be part of your business strategy

Outsourcing e-discovery and information management services is no longer something businesses can ignore. E-discovery and information management services are rapidly becoming critical, highly-discussed topics in board meetings across the globe. Developing a strategy for outsourcing them is a key to the success of today’s modern, Internet-enabled enterprises.

As the world begins to see more and more bogus tort claims, frivolous lawsuits, and increasing amounts of civil litigation in general, the process of discovery, or the process of obtaining documents, interrogations, and other evidence from opposing parties before trial, during such litigation proceedings becomes increasingly cumbersome and costly to obtain. The discovery process was difficult to begin with before the Internet-era; but now with the introduction of massive amounts of computer-based data such as emails, instant messages, and other intangible data stored in electronic format the discovery process becomes even more difficult to complete. This new form of discovery, known as http://ledjit.com/, is not just more complicated than its traditional predecessor due to the existence of larger amounts of data in formats far less tangible than paper.

The e-discovery process is further hindered due to a larger array of personnel involved in the process of discovering relevant, electronically-based data. Lawyers and forensic investigators, who are unfamiliar with the technological aspects of creating, maintaining, preserving, and deleting electronically-based data, must cooperate during the e-discovery process with IT professionals (IT managers, database administrators, network administrators, etc.), all of whom are generally unfamiliar with the law. This clash often results in delays, misunderstandings, or, even worse, data corruption or even outright data loss.

The tasks of managing a company’s data and, in the event civil litigation arises, e-discovery are peripheral tasks not directly related the company’s core goals. Just like the duties involved with payroll processing have been successfully delegated to outside specialist firms, outsourcing e-discovery and information management services are gradually taking hold amongst businesses worldwide. Despite fears from the opposition, outsourcing these tasks is proven to be efficient, cost-effective, and safe.

Firms specializing in e-discovery outsourcing have professional staff trained in tasks specific to the discovery process and how it is conducted in today’s electronic document era. Outsourcing these tasks frees corporate attorneys from these burdens so that they can focus on tasks more suited to them. Instead of wasting time on the “grunt work” of ploughing through boxes of digital tape backups or data mining through hundreds of gigabytes of archived receipts, attorneys can focus more on clients and business development efforts.

When a corporation’s legal department teams up with an e-discovery outsourcing company located in another country, the potential to speed up the process and meet previously impossible deadlines increases dramatically, as attorneys can take advantage of time differences between their offices and that of the outsourcing company in order to continuously work on a project non-stop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

via Legal Process Outsourcing: Guest article:Why Outsourcing E-discovery should be part of your business strategy.

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Disputes sans frontières | The Lawyer

High stakes: who’s who in the $20bn transatlantic litigation market

There was a time when the idea of cross-border regulatory cooperation was so unlikely it was used by litigators as part of the strategy.

“Things would just take so long because there was no cross-border inter-connectedness,” says one New York-based litigation partner. “Things fell into the ocean.”

Not any more. What used to be a black hole is now one of the driving forces behind the global growth of litigation.

As Clifford Chance’s global head of litigation Jeremy Sandelson points out in our Special Report, starting on page 25, “I believe there will be much greater coordination betweenregulators as they each seek to protect their ’own’ markets while at the same time attempting to get to grips with global issues.”

via Disputes sans frontières | Features | The Lawyer.

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RT @EvolveDiscovery: Will #Analytics spell the end of #keyword search as a legal #ediscovery strategy? http://bit.ly/bXFpDM

RT @EvolveDiscovery: Will #Analytics spell the end of #keyword search as a legal #ediscovery strategy? http://bit.ly/bXFpDM

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Shearman plans a radical strategy rethink to boost litigation revenue | Features | The Lawyer http://bit.ly/brTL1d #ediscovery

Shearman plans a radical strategy rethink to boost litigation revenue | Features | The Lawyer http://bit.ly/brTL1d #ediscovery

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Shearman plans a radical strategy rethink to boost litigation revenue | Features | The Lawyer

Shearman & Sterling is aiming to increase its global litigation revenues significantly over the next few years in what amounts to an admission that its dispute resolution capabilities are currently underweight.

Shearman has one of the world’s highest-profile litigation and arbitration practices, and is particularly well known for current hot areas such as Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) advice. Yet the total litigation revenue as a proportion of the firm’s overall fee income lags behind that of many of its competitors.

New York-based securities litigation partner Herb Washer says this is an area Shearman is now looking to address.

“Our goal is to grow litigation significantly over the next five years until it is at least a third of total revenue,” says Washer.

In a radical overhaul of Shearman’s strategy, the firm’s current level of litigation revenue, approximately just over 20 per cent of the fee income, is expected to mushroom.

via Shearman plans a radical strategy rethink to boost litigation revenue | Features | The Lawyer.

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USIS Survey of Government Leaders Reveals e-Discovery Trends | Business Wire

-USIS, an Altegrity company, today released the results of a survey it conducted among government leaders from the federal e-Discovery community at the Digital Government Institute’s Federal e-Discovery Symposium held in late August 2010. Key findings published in the report on the survey, Federal e-Discovery Trends, include:

“This survey reinforces how important it is to have good information management practices in place for the e-Discovery program and the burden it can place on a team when those practices simply aren’t there”

  • The chief information officer increasingly is joining the chief counsel in setting e-Discovery strategy.
  • Information management, data collection, and producing discoverable results in a timely manner are major concerns.
  • More than one-third of respondents said the preservation and collection stage of electronic data discovery (EDD) needs the most improvement.
  • Organizations that place a strong emphasis on the EDD process and strategy tend to have better e-Discovery processes.
  • Among respondents whose organizations do not place an emphasis on the EDD process, not a single one reported being satisfied with their e-Discovery process.

via USIS Survey of Government Leaders Reveals e-Discovery Trends | Business Wire.

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Are you Keeping your ESI Policies Up to Date? Survey Says Maybe Not

Trends in Corporate ESI Discovery

The report found that while companies were successful at implementing strategies regarding ESI and are confident about the ability to hold up in court, results also indicate that policies are not being revisited or updated to reflect changes in technology the company may employ. By breaking into 15 findings, the report covers everything from early case assessment to legal hold technologies to data mapping to litigation budgets and everything in between. Here’s a snapshot of what the report found:

Document Retention & Archival

79% of companies in the U.S. have a document retention policy

Roughly three in five companies in the U.S. have an archiving technology platform in place to manage the storage and destruction of ESI in an automated fashion

Overall, IT (67 percent) is more aware of implemented archiving technology than legal (58 percent).

Legal Hold

53% of companies have a mechanism in place to suspend their organization’s document retention policy

Almost one quarter (24%) of companies do not possess a legal hold tool

Confidence & Defensibility

54% of companies believe that their ESI discovery strategy for responding to litigation or regulatory matters is repeatable and defensible.

IT (91%) is more confident than legal (73%) in the defensibility of their archiving platform

ESI Discovery

Over half of companies (52%) in the US have an ESI strategy for responding to litigation or investigatory matters

27% of legal as opposed to 18% of IT do not know if their organization has a policy in place

Testing & Repeatability

40% of respondents tend to agree and 23% of respondents strongly agree that their organization’s ESI discovery strategy is repeatable and defensible.

38% of respondents have tested their policies

45% of respondents do not know if their policies have been tested

Cooperation & Responsibility

In the U.S., legal and IT are sharing an increased responsibility (44%) to develop and enforce the company’s ESI discovery strategy.

Updates & Follow-Up

24% of companies in the U.S. have updated policies to reflect mobile devices and privacy laws than any other technology.

55% of companies either have not updated policies at all or do not know if updates have occurred

Adding it All Up

via Are you Keeping your ESI Policies Up to Date? Survey Says Maybe Not.

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Study: Internationally, U.S. Law Firms are Lagging Behind – Law Blog – WSJ

In the past 20 years, U.S.-based law firms have gone global, opening offices in places like London, Warsaw, Doha, and Ho Chi Minh City, in attempt not only to service U.S. clients that have expanded their international reach, but to pick up new foreign clients as well.

Has the strategy worked? Perhaps. But a survey to be released next week concludes that U.S. firms might not be doing as well as they could be. The study reveals that a “surprising” number of in-house lawyers prefer to seek counsel in other countries, according to this article in Corporate Counsel.

According to the CC article, the survey that suggests that many global companies would rather be advised by British firms than by U.S.-based ones.

via Study: Internationally, U.S. Law Firms are Lagging Behind – Law Blog – WSJ.

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