Investigations: understanding data privacy

Examines an often overlooked aspect of regulatory compliance in the transactional context, ie UK privacy laws. Looks at how they operate and reviews data privacy laws in the European Union: organisations, as “data controllers”, have obligations to individuals as “data subjects”, to disclose to them how data about them is being used. Discusses issues in compliance: notice and data disclosures, the legitimate grounds for data processing, data security, international data transfers, and registration of data processing activities. Concludes that data privacy, which was once thought a peripheral matter, now demands greater attention for all involved in prevention, detection and prosecution of financial crimes, as the performance of due diligence, construction of “data rooms” and other typical transactional tasks can all raise privacy issues.