Episode 155 — Data Privacy News from December 2023

Data Privacy Detective

Episode 155 considers three important developments as 2024 opens:

• How the European Union’s pending AI Act blazes a new trail
• How umbrella insurance may or may not apply to claims involving biometrics
• How Quebec’s 2023 data privacy act will reshape privacy notices throughout North America.

Yugo Nagashima and Brion St. Amour, attorneys with the coast-to-coast U.S. law firm Frost Brown Todd LLP, team with the Data Privacy Detective to cover these three essential matters.

On December 9, the European Union published a preliminary agreement on the Artificial Intelligence Act, a pioneering law that provides a framework for sale and use of AI in the EU. We consider what the AI Act covers and the four-levels-of-risk approach the EU will take for regulating AI.

We then jump into discussion of a class action lawsuit against Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corp. The suit claims a violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Does Krispy Kreme’s insurance coverage apply? We consider the distinction between the lawsuit's claims and the company’s umbrella policy. The insurer declared that Krispy Kreme is not entitled to an insurance paid defense, based on a policy exclusion.

The Quebec Act for protection of personal information in the private sector became law in September 2023. December 18, 2023 Guidance from Quebec’s Commission covers what must be in privacy notices, including that they be in clear, simple language (in French and English). https://www.cai.gouv.qc.ca/politiques-de-confidentialite/ What is “clear and simple”? The Guidance offers a checklist of what organizations should say in their website privacy postings, and is certain to force changes in websites of digital businesses that cover U.S. and Canadian markets.

Time stamps:

01:16 — EU’s pending AI Act

10:11 — Umbrella insurance and biometrics

17:08 — Quebec’s 2023 data privacy act