January

Belgium will have for the first time in history a member of the cabinet dedicated to privacy. The Flemish liberal Bart Tommelein will be the Secretary of State (i.e. a member of the cabinet assigned to a Minister) responsible for privacy matters. The Secretary of State's other competences include combating social fraud, an activity that typically benefits from extensive use of personal data. It will be interesting to see how he will reconcile the (potential) privacy-invasive nature of his combat against social fraud with his duty to protect privacy. This seems to indicate that the new government intends to play a very active role in legislating privacy laws.

"The PSNI has apologised for a delay in employment police checks after it emerged that nearly 230 people have been waiting more than six months. The checks, carried out before certain employers recruit new staff, should be completed within four weeks. However, the BBC has learned that, in some cases, it has taken much longer and people have lost out on job offers. The checks are carried out on anyone who will be working or volunteering with children or vulnerable adults. ""Whilst seeking to expedite the applications, it is imperative that we thoroughly consider each application in order to provide proper protection for children and vulnerable adults,"" said Superintendent John McCaughan."

"With a single court decision, Uber's low-cost car service has been banned throughout Germany. The taxi firms say that drivers who use Uber's platform to find riders and accept payments don't have the appropriate operating licenses, background checks or insurance. One spokesperson for the taxis said the rules ""also apply to neo-liberal firms like Uber."" In this case, the court made the decision not out of concern for the safety of passengers, but because German law says that people without commercial drivers licenses can only charge for the operating costs of giving other people rides, not attempt to make a profit."