Video Games Cultural Test Regulation

The Cultural Test Regulations for video games came into force introducing a “cultural test” for video games, with points being awarded on the basis of setting, content, language, the British cultural aspects of the game, where certain work on the game is carried out and the residence or nationality of the creators of the video game. 

The purpose of the test is to allow the game’s development company to apply for their work to be certified as a British video game which is a condition of eligibility for video games tax relief. 

Paddy Power Reports Personnel Data Loss

Paddy Power, the Irish bookmaker with betting shops in Ireland and the UK, recently informed  649,055 customers of a data breach which occurred in 2010. 

Included within the datasets stolen from Paddy Power in 2010 were personnel data such as each individual customer's name, email address, residential address, phone number, date of birth and security prompted question and answer data.  Following a report to Paddy Power that a Canadian resident was in possession of the stolen data, Paddy Power launched an investigation aided by the Ontario Provincial Police. With the aid of asset seizure warrants, Paddy Power was able to secure the removal of its customers personal data from the hacker's computers.

Under UK Data Protection Law, unlike in some other EU countries, the data controller is not obliged to report the loss of personnel data held. Nevertheless the Information Commissioner's Office believes serious breaches of data security should be brought to the attention of the office. It has therefore published a guidance on notifications of data security breaches.

Social Media Guide of Financial Conduct Authority

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently published a guidance "Social media and customer communications" which sets out the FCA's supervisory approach to financial promotions in social media, including its character-limited forms.

The authority's views are based on the FCA existing rules and, more broadly, the requirement under Principle 7 of the FCA's Principles for Businesses that firms must communicate with customers in a way that is clear, fair and not misleading.

New Proposed EU Guidelines for Cloud Computing Contracts

New guidelines to help business users save money and get the most out of cloud computing services have been presented to the European Commission by the Cloud Select Industry Group as part of the Commission’s European Cloud Strategy to increase trust in these services. Contributors to the guidelines include ATOS, Cloud Security Alliance, ENISA, IBM, Microsoft and SAP, Telecom Italia.

Goal is to develop standardised blocks for Service Level Agreements (SLAs) terminology and metrics. Relevant items include the availability and reliability of the cloud service, the quality of support services they will receive from their cloud provider, security levels, how to better manage the data they keep in the cloud.