Month: August 2021

Blog: Call for views: data protection and employment practices

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Anulka Clarke, ICO Acting Director of Regulatory Assurance introduces our call for views in this blog as we look to update our Employment Practices guidance. In recent times, working life has changed for millions of us in a way few could have predicted. Every industry sector and its workers have been impacted. Both in the public and private sector, and businesses large and small. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are impacting the ways decisions are made about workers; monitoring technologies are more varied and widespread in use; and the COVID-19…

How Does Ethereum Staking Work?

The launch of the Beacon Chain network in December introduced the first iteration of protocol-level staking for Ethereum investors. Put simply, Ethereum staking is the process of locking up an amount of ETH – the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain – for a specified period of time in order to contribute to the security of the blockchain and earn network rewards. People who do this are known as “validators” or “stakers,” and are tasked with processing transactions, storing information and adding blocks to the Beacon Chain – the new…

ICO consults on how organisations can continue to protect people’s personal data when it’s transferred outside of the UK

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The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a public consultation on its draft international data transfer agreement (IDTA) and guidance. When organisations send personal information to a country outside the UK, they must ensure people’s data protection rights continue to be protected. An IDTA is a contract that organisations can use when transferring data to countries not covered by adequacy decisions. The IDTA will replace the current standard contractual clauses (SCCs) to take into account the binding judgment of the European Court of Justice in a case commonly known as…

PNC Bank Planning Crypto Offering With Coinbase

“In recent months, we have formed partnerships with industry leaders including [Tesla CEO] Elon Musk, PNC Bank, SpaceX, Tesla, Third Point LLC and WisdomTree Investments,” a letter from Coinbase to its shareholders read. When asked about the partnership by CoinDesk, the crypto exchange declined to elaborate. Source

What We Know (and Don’t) About Stablecoins’ Dollar Backing

Most stablecoin issuers, including Circle, Paxos, Huobi and Gemini, release attestation reports every month. For TrueUSD, the attestation is released 24/7 – you can get a report whenever you want, showing the state of its U.S. dollar collateral up to the minute. On the other end of the spectrum, Tether said it would issue attestation reports on a quarterly basis. Source

China is Getting Out of Crypto Mining. Is North America Ready to Embrace it? — CoinDesk

After all, planes fly in all directions, and Kazakhstan, Russia, Iran and Malaysia all have mining infrastructure and are located in much closer proximity However, while their capacity is growing as a result of China’s actions, the United States seems to be a clear winner in this post-crackdown race; according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, the U.S.’s share of the global hashrate has quadrupled to 16.8% since the same time last year, making it the main successor to China in terms of cryptocurrency mining Source

New guidance on direct marketing and the public sector

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The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published a new resource to help public sector organisations understand when the direct marketing rules will apply to their messages. The guidance is aimed at those responsible for data protection within public sector organisations. Direct marketing is broad and covers all types of advertising or marketing that is directed at individuals. It involves any type of communication including emails, text messages, direct messaging on social media and more traditional methods such as phone calls and post. It includes commercial marketing (eg the promotion of…

A Crypto Guide to the Metaverse

In an interview with The Verge, Zuckerberg outlined his ambitions for what the metaverse could be. He discussed the idea of virtual workspaces, which he called “infinity offices.” Working in VR, he argues, allows for greater multitasking, and meeting in a virtual, metaverse type environment can be intrinsically more collaborative and productive. Zoom calls have their obvious limitations, and Zuckerberg says he already prefers to do his meetings in VR if possible. Source

Polygon

Polygon (MATIC) is an ERC-20 token that supports the Polygon Network (fka Matic Network), a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum. Polygon’s end goal is to provide an improved user experience for Ethereum decentralized applications that are impaired by high gas fees and transaction processing times. Polygon aims to improve network speed and lower the cost of utilizing the Ethereum blockchain by using sidechains, which are separate blockchains anchored to Ethereum’s main chain. Polygon provides components and tools to build projects on top of Ethereum by allowing developers the option…

Nuisance call blocker company fined £170,000 for making almost 200,000 illegal marketing calls

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The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Yes Consumer Solutions Limited (YCSL) £170,000 for making 188,493 unsolicited direct marketing calls to customers registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). The calls were made over a 12 month period between October 2018 and October 2019. YCSL sell nuisance call blocking systems, and had the means to check their marketing lists against the TPS, yet still contacted almost 200,000 people without their consent. The ICO began investigating YCSL after receiving 13 complaints from members of the public, who also complained to the…