The Online Safety Bill was signed off in the Houses of Parliament last week and will soon become law. The bill will make the UK the safest place in the world to be on line with new duties placed on social media companies.  Seen as one of the most powerful child protection laws in a generation, the bill will also ensure adults are better able to take control of their online lives, increasing protection to mental health. Check here for further details.

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The UK has now approved the data bridge to allow transfers of personal data to the United States of America.  The bridge is an extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPF), approved by the European Commission in June 2023.  In fact, “Data bridge” is the UK Government’s terminology for an adequacy decision under UK GDPR. In the same manner as with the DPF, to be able to rely on the UK-U.S. Data bridge, the U.S.-based data recipient needs to be certified under the DPF.

As Brodies reports, “draft regulations were laid before Parliament on 21 September 2023 and will come into force on 12 October 2023. From that date, organisations exporting personal data to the US will be able to rely upon the Data Bridge for transfers to US organisations that have certified under the EU US Data Privacy Framework”. Click here for more information.

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As Reuters reports, “European Union lawmaker Brando Benifei, who is leading negotiations on artificial intelligence rules, on Thursday urged EU countries to compromise in key areas in order to reach agreement with the bloc’s executive by the end of the year.

The thorniest issues are biometric surveillance and copyrighted material used by ChatGPT and other generative AI. Lawmakers want a ban on AI use in biometric surveillance but EU countries led by France want exceptions for national security, defence and military purposes. Lawmakers also want AI legislation to cover copyrighted material used by companies like OpenAI, backed by Microsoft Corp […], while EU countries say the bloc’s current copyright rules offer sufficient protection”. Click here to get more details.