March

The Qatar cabinet has approved a draft privacy law that aims to protect residents against spam messages via email or on mobile phones, the Qatar News Agency said.
 
The draft data privacy law protects personal information that has been collected or processed electronically, or by combining electronic and 'traditional' processing. The draft law includes specific provisions on the right of individuals to protect their personal data, on the obligations of the data controller and processor, on personal data of a private nature, and banning any electronic communications sent "for the purpose of direct marketing to individuals without obtaining prior consent".
 
The Communications Regulatory Authority said it was drafting a code of conduct that would improve existing guidelines for companies that use text messages and applications such as WhatsApp, Viber and Skype to reach potential customers. The draft law has now been passed to Qatar's Advisory Council.

On January 21, 2016, the Israeli Law, Information and Technology Authority (ILITA) announced that it would postpone for the time being any review or enforcement actions on data transfers from Israel to the U.S. that are based on the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor framework.
 
This contradicts an earlier statement by ILITA in October 2015. Israel's privacy regulations permit the transfer of personal data outside of Israel under certain circumstances, including transfers made "to a country to which the European Union permits transfers". Because of this, Israel relied on the Safe Harbor framework as a legal basis that enabled data transfers from Israel to the U.S. The Article 29 Working Party and others have urged regulators to adopt a new legal framework by January 31, 2016, to permit the transfer of personal data from the EU to the U.S. that complies with the requirements of the Schrems decision.
 
It is not clear whether the impending deadline will be reached, so ILITA has decided that the best course of action will be to postpone any potential Safe Harbor-related enforcement until there is more clarity on this issue.

Employers that refuse to hire someone on the basis of their past criminal convictions could be violating international obligations, legal experts say.
 
While discriminating against a job applicant because they have a criminal history is not unlawful under federal anti-discrimination law, McDonald Murholme lawyer Trent Hancock says this form of discrimination is prohibited by the International Labour Organisation Convention 111.
 
The Convention is a schedule to the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986, giving the AHRC the power to investigate any discrimination complaints and alleged breaches, and prepare reports for the Attorney-General which must be tabled in Parliament. Employers can then be ordered to take remedial action as a result of the recommendations of this report, said Hancock.
 
Continue reading to learn Hancock's top tips for HR professionals when dealing with criminal investigations and past convictions in the workplace.