The California Senate Appropriations Committee recently blocked a bill that would expand a private right of action under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). As we reported, in late February, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced Senate Bill 561, legislation intended to strengthen and clarify the CCPA. Then in April, the Senate … Continue Reading
No industry or sector is immune to privacy or security issues. This week a jury in a district court in Pennsylvania awarded $1,000 to each of the 68,000 class members who claimed that Bucks County, a county just outside Philadelphia, and several other municipal entities, violated state law by making their criminal records public, in … Continue Reading
The GDPR is wrapping up its first year and moving full steam ahead. This principles-based regulation has had a global impact on organizations as well as individuals. While there continue to be many questions about its application and scope, anticipated European Data Protection Board guidance and Data Protection Authority enforcement activity should provide further clarity … Continue Reading
Many health care providers, including small and medium-sized physician practices, rely on a number of third party service providers to serve their patients and run their businesses. Perhaps the most important of these is a practice’s electronic medical record (EMR) provider, which manages and stores patient protected health information. EMR providers generally are business associates … Continue Reading
A district court in Tennessee recently concluded in Wachter Inc. v. Cabling Innovations LLC that two former employees who allegedly shared confidential company information found on the company’s computer system with a competitor did not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The CFAA expressly prohibits “intentionally accessing a computer without authorization or exceeding … Continue Reading
California keeps making privacy headlines for its trailblazing California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), set to take effect January 1, 2020, but there is another set of privacy bills making its way through the California state legislature, that, if passed, will provide consumers with further privacy protections. The “Your Data Your Way” initiative, comprised of four … Continue Reading
Wrongful use of retirement plan participant data was among the claims made by a class of 40,000 participants against the plan sponsor and others in Cassell et al. v. Vanderbilt University et al. Specifically, the plan participants claimed that the University inter alia breached its “loyalty and prudence” duty by failing to protect confidential employee … Continue Reading
Ever since the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) was enacted in June of 2018 it has been in a constant state of revision. First, in September of 2018, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 1121, which helped clarify and strengthen the original version of law. Then, in February of 2019, California Attorney General Xavier … Continue Reading
When the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 became law, it made significant changes to the civil monetary penalties for violations of HIPAA. In addition to increasing the amounts of the penalties, HITECH created a tiered approach to penalties, establishing four categories based on levels of culpability. In addition, … Continue Reading
How will the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) apply to us? This is a question 0rganizations have asked since the CCPA was first proposed. There remains a number of important questions about the scope of the Golden State’s sweeping privacy law that still need to be answered. One of those questions is whether the CCPA … Continue Reading
It was looking like Washington state would be the first state to follow the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), with a GDPR-like law of its own. That effort has stalled, perhaps temporarily. However, both Washington’s House and Senate voted unanimously to send HB 1071 to Gov. Jay Inslee, which would substantially expand the state’s current … Continue Reading
Following recent examinations of SEC-registered investment advisers and broker-dealers, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) published a privacy risk alert on April 16, 2019. OCIE is hoping to remind advisers and broker-dealers about providing compliant privacy and opt-out notices, and adopting and implementing effective policies and procedures for safeguarding … Continue Reading
According to a recent decision from a federal district court in Illinois, Bose Corp. may monitor and collect information about the music and audio files consumers choose to play through its wireless products and transmit that information to third parties without the consumers’ knowledge. Such action does not violate the federal Wiretap Act or the … Continue Reading
Small and midsized enterprises (SMEs) continue to be targeted by ransomware, phishing and other cyberattacks; the consequences of which could be devastating. Those consequences include putting SMEs out of business, which is unfortunately the case for one small medical practice in Battle Creek, Michigan, as reported by HIPAAJournal. The reality is that the effects of these attacks … Continue Reading
UPDATE: The changes to the Massachusetts data breach notification law described below are now in effect. Thus, if you have discovered a data incident involving the personal information of Massachusetts residents you will want to review these changes carefully – they are significant and the Commonwealth is intent on educating the public about them. Because we have coached … Continue Reading
As we reported, in late February, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced Senate Bill 561, legislation intended to strengthen and clarify the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee referred the bill to the Senate Appropriations Committee by a vote of 6-2. This move came despite concerns raised … Continue Reading
As reported by CBC, B.C. Pension Corporation announced a data breach involving pension plan records after discovering a box containing microfiche could not be found following a recent office move. The box contained personal information (names, social insurance numbers and dates of birth) on approximately 8,000 pension plan participants. The company employed those participants during the period 1982 to … Continue Reading
UPDATE: As discussed below, SB2134, as introduced, would have amended BIPA to delete the language that creates a private right of action and provide, instead, that violations resulting from the collection of biometric information by an employer for employment, human resources, fraud prevention, or security purposes would be subject to the enforcement authority of the … Continue Reading
As wearable and analytics technology continues to explode, professional sports leagues, such as the NFL, have aggressively pushed into this field. (See Bloomberg). NFL teams insert tiny chips into players shoulder pads to track different metrics of their game. During the 2018-2019 NFL season, data was released that Ezekiel Elliot ran 21.27 miles per hour … Continue Reading
Add Washington D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine’s recent data security legislative proposal – the Security Breach Protection Amendment Act of 2019 – to the growing list of states and jurisdictions across the country seeking to strengthen privacy and security protections around personal information. Proposed in response to major data breaches, a frequent catalyst to stronger … Continue Reading
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which goes into effect January 1, 2020, is considered the most expansive state privacy law in the United States. Organizations familiar with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which became effective on May 25, 2018, certainly will understand CCPA’s implications. Perhaps the best known comprehensive privacy and … Continue Reading
The Garden State has been updating its data privacy and security laws and you may be wondering why. On October 28, 2018, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and the New Jersey State Police the New Jersey announced statistics on the effects of data breaches in 2017 on New Jersey residents. Based on that report, here … Continue Reading
Since the start of 2019, New Jersey has shown it is on the forefront of consumer privacy and security law. Last week we reported on Assembly Bill 3245 (AB 3245) that would enhance the state’s data breach notification requirements. In short, if signed, AB 3245, would require businesses to notify consumers of online account security … Continue Reading
According to reports, bank customers in Australia (yes, data breach notification requirements exist down under) have been affected by “an industry-wide” data breach experienced by a third-party service provider to the banks – property valuation firm, LandMark White. As expected, the banks are investigating and in some cases notifying customers about the incident. However, there are reports that … Continue Reading
