Facial recognition, voiceprint, and other biometric-related technology are booming, and they continue to infiltrate different facets of everyday life. The technology brings countless potential benefits, as well as significant data privacy and cybersecurity risks.
Whether it is facial recognition technology being used with COVID-19 screening tools and in law enforcement, continued use of fingerprint-based time
Last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) implementing President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate covering employers with at least 100 employees. The ETS is summarized here, including the general compliance deadline of 30 days from November 5, 2021, with an additional 30 days for testing to
When use or disclosure of an individual’s health information or medical records is at issue, the assumption seems to be, much more often than not, that the HIPAA privacy and security rules apply. This has certainly been the case during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, it is true that in most healthcare settings, HIPAA is
Facial recognition technology has become increasingly popular in recent years in the employment and consumer space (e.g. employee access, passport check-in systems, payments on smartphones), and in particular during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the need arose to screen persons entering a facility for symptoms of the virus, including temperature, thermal cameras, kiosks, and other devices
The Baltimore City Council recently passed an ordinance, in a vote of 13-2, barring the use of facial recognition technology by city residents, businesses, and most of the city government (excluding the city police department) until December 2022. Council Bill 21-0001 prohibits persons from “obtaining, retaining, accessing, or using certain face surveillance technology or any
As access to COVID-19 vaccines becomes more prevalent, and we begin to conceptualize what a post-pandemic world might look like, many governments are assessing the idea of a COVID-19 vaccine passport framework. In late March, the European Commission announced its plan for a COVID-19 Digital Green Certificate framework (“the framework”) to facilitate “safe free movement
In a recent post, we highlighted the need for a privacy and cybersecurity training program, one not solely focused on spotting phishing attempts (although that is quite important as well). A primary reason, quite simply, is that employees continue to be a leading cause of data breaches. This fact was reaffirmed for the Wyoming
As we noted in late January 2020, the spread of infectious disease raises particular concerns for healthcare workers who want to do their jobs and care for their patients, while also protect themselves and their families. Perhaps the desire to protect one’s self and family is what motivated a California state healthcare worker to access
A key tech initiative as COVID-19 vaccinations begin rolling out are digital health passports. One example is being developed by a group of large tech companies along with the Mayo Clinic as part of the Vaccination Credential Initiative. The Initiative’s digital vaccination record will likely be a smartphone app. The Initiative is leveraging the CommonPass
Federal contractors know all too well the list of annual requirements and obligations can seem overwhelming at times. One that may get overlooked by some is annual training requirements. A fairly new such training went into effect in 2017 – it requires certain federal contractors to do annual data privacy training.
According to the U.S.