April

The U.S. and Swiss governments have finalized a Privacy Shield agreement to allow the cross-border transfer of personal data from Switzerland to the United States. 

Under the new Swiss - U.S. Privacy Shield framework, companies can begin self-certification under this program on April 12, 2017. It provides U.S. companies with a single mechanism for complying with Swiss data protection and privacy laws when transferring data from Switzerland to the U.S. 

The framework also includes assurances from the U.S. government that the U.S. law enforcement and intelligence communities will not have unfettered access to EU and Swiss citizen data.

Beginning April 6, 2017, those applying to go to the UK to take a job, along with their adult dependents, will be subject to the requirement under the Immigration Rules to produce a criminal record certificate. 

The certificate must be produced from any country in which they have been resident for 12 months or more, consecutively or cumulatively, in the previous ten years, aged 18 or over. 

Therefore, sponsors must start informing prospective employees at the point they assign their Certificate of Sponsorship that they may become subject to this requirement by the time they make their application. This will enable them to begin seeking certificates where needed at the earliest opportunity and to lodge a complete application for entry clearance sooner.

Chilean legislators are soon expected to consider a new data protection law which would impose new privacy compliance standards and certain enforcement provisions on companies doing business in Chile. 

Chile's existing data protection law, the Law on the Protection of Private Life (Law No. 19,628), was signed into law in 1999 and does not provide for a privacy regulator with enforcement authority. 

The new bill will provide for the establishment of a data protection authority. It is expected that the data protection authority would report to another government agency rather than operating entirely independently.