Data protection cases in the spotlight

Two recent cases involving data protection have recently been in the spotlight.  In WM Morrisons Supermarkets PLC v Various Claimants, the Court of Appeal dismissed Morrisons’ appeal against the High Court’s decision that Morrisons was vicariously liable for the deliberate disclosure by an employee of his co-workers’ personal data on the internet. Unless there is a successful appeal to the Supreme Court, Morrisons is now facing liability for damages in respect of over 5,000 individuals.

In Lloyd v Google LLC, the High Court has refused to grant leave to serve a claim on Google Inc (a Delaware corporation) outside of the English jurisdiction in relation to the ‘Safari Workaround’, which involved Google allegedly using cookie technology on the iPhone Safari browser to obtain browser-generated information about iPhone users between 2011-12 (tracking internet activity) without their knowledge.

For a full discussion of these cases, please see the Privacy Matters blog.