SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
Joe started the Gummy Bear Company in 2000 from his home in Vermont, USA. Today, it is a multi-billion-dollar candy company operating in every continent. All of the company’s IT servers are located in Vermont. This year Joe hires his son Ben to join the company and head up Project Big, which is a major marketing strategy to triple gross revenue in just 5 years. Ben graduated with a PhD in computer software from a top university. Ben decided to join his father’s company, but is also secretly working on launching a new global online dating website company called Ben Knows Best.
Ben is aware that the Gummy Bear Company has millions of customers and believes that many of them might also be interested in finding their perfect match. For Project Big, Ben redesigns the company’s online web portal and requires customers in the European Union and elsewhere to provide additional personal information in order to remain a customer. Project Ben begins collecting data about customers’ philosophical beliefs, political opinions and marital status.
If a customer identifies as single, Ben then copies all of that customer’s personal data onto a separate database for Ben Knows Best. Ben believes that he is not doing anything wrong, because he explicitly asks each customer to give their consent by requiring them to check a box before accepting their information. As Project Big is an important project, the company also hires a first year college student named Sam, who is studying computer science to help Ben out.
Ben calls out and Sam comes across the Ben Knows Best database. Sam is planning on going to Ireland over Spring Beak with 10 of his friends, so he copies all of the customer information of people that reside in Ireland so that he and his friends can contact people when they are in Ireland.
Joe also hires his best friend’s daughter, Alice, who just graduated from law school in the U.S., to be the company’s new General Counsel. Alice has heard about the GDPR, so she does some research on it. Alice approaches Joe and informs him that she has drafted up Binding Corporate Rules for everyone in the company to follow, as it is important for the company to have in place a legal mechanism to transfer data internally from the company’s operations in the European Union to the U.S.
Joe believes that Alice is doing a great job, and informs her that she will also be in-charge of handling a major lawsuit that has been brought against the company in federal court in the U.S. To prepare for the lawsuit, Alice instructs the company’s IT department to make copies of the computer hard drives from the entire global sales team, including the European Union, and send everything to her so that she can review everyone’s information. Alice believes that Joe will be happy that she did the first level review, as it will save the company a lot of money that would otherwise be paid to its outside law firm.
In preparing the company for its impending lawsuit, Alice’s instruction to the company’s IT Department violated Article 5 of the GDPR because the company failed to first do what?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
ABC Hotel Chain and XYZ Travel Agency are U.S.-based multinational companies. They use an internet-based common platform for collecting and sharing their customer data with each other, in order to integrate their marketing efforts. Additionally, they agree on the data to be stored, how reservations will be booked and confirmed, and who has access to the stored data.
Mike, an EU resident, has booked travel itineraries in the past through XYZ Travel Agency to stay at ABC Hotel Chain’s locations. XYZ Travel Agency offers a rewards program that allows customers to sign up to accumulate points that can later be redeemed for free travel. Mike has signed the agreement to be a rewards program member.
Now Mike wants to know what personal information the company holds about him. He sends an email requesting access to his data, in order to exercise what he believes are his data subject rights.
What is the time period in which Mike should receive a response to his request?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
Financially, it has been a very good year at ARRA Hotels: Their 21 hotels, located in
Greece (5), Italy (15) and Spain (1), have registered their most profitable results
ever. To celebrate this achievement, ARRA Hotels' Human Resources office, based
in ARRA's main Italian establishment, has organized a team event for its 420
employees and their families at its hotel in Spain.
Upon arrival at the hotel, each employee and family member is given an electronic
wristband at the reception desk. The wristband serves a number of functions:
. Allows access to the "party zone" of the hotel, and emits a buzz if the user
approaches any unauthorized areas
. Allows up to three free drinks for each person of legal age, and emits a
buzz once this limit has been reached
. Grants a unique ID number for participating in the games and contests that
have been planned.
Along with the wristband, each guest receives a QR code that leads to the online
privacy notice describing the use of the wristband. The page also contains an
unchecked consent checkbox. In the case of employee family members under the
age of 16, consent must be given by a parent.
Among the various activities planned for the event, ARRA Hotels' HR office has
autonomously set up a photocall area, separate from the main event venue, where
employees can come and have their pictures taken in traditional carnival costume.
The photos will be posted on ARRA Hotels' main website for general marketing
purposes.
On the night of the event, an employee from one of ARRA's Greek hotels is
displeased with the results of the photos in which he appears. He intends to file a
complaint with the relevant supervisory authority in regard to the following:
. The lack of any privacy notice in the separate photocall area
The unlawful cross-border processing of his personal data
. The unacceptable aesthetic outcome of his photos
Assuming that there is a cross-border processing of personal data, which of the
following criteria would NOT be useful to the lead supervisory authority responsible
for the Greek employee's complaint when trying to determine the location of the
controller's main establishment?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
BHealthy, a company based in Italy, is ready to launch a new line of natural products, with a focus on sunscreen. The last step prior to product launch is for BHealthy to conduct research to decide how extensively to market its new line of sunscreens across Europe. To do so, BHealthy teamed up with Natural Insight, a company specializing in determining pricing for natural products. BHealthy decided to share its existing customer information – name, location, and prior purchase history – with Natural Insight. Natural Insight intends to use this information to train its algorithm to help determine the price point at which BHealthy can sell its new sunscreens.
Prior to sharing its customer list, BHealthy conducted a review of Natural Insight’s security practices and concluded that the company has sufficient security measures to protect the contact information. Additionally, BHealthy’s data processing contractual terms with Natural Insight require continued implementation of technical and organization measures. Also indicated in the contract are restrictions on use of the data provided by BHealthy for any purpose beyond provision of the services, which include use of the data for continued improvement of Natural Insight’s machine learning algorithms.
In which case would Natural Insight’s use of BHealthy’s data for improvement of its algorithms be considered data processor activity?