Privacy & Cybersecurity

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has handed down its largest civil penalty ever for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). Musical.ly, now known as TikTok after a 2018 merger, agreed to a fine of $5.7 million for its violations. The settlement was significant not only because of its record amount, but also because it includes a specific agreement on how the website will operate going forward.

Last week, California State Senator Jackson and state Attorney General Becerra introduced a new bill, Senate Bill 561.  If passed, it will greatly expand the consumers’ right to bring private lawsuits for violations of the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”).  SB 561 will: (1) provide for a private right of action for all CCPA violations—not just those stemming from a data breach; (2) eliminate the 30-day safe-harbor provision that currently allows companies to cure the violation and thereby avoid a private right of action; and (3) prevent companies from seeking specific opinions from the Attorney General and instead allow the AG’s office to provide “general guidance” via publications.

This month, Mintz’s TCPA Digest reviews the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) adoption of a proposal to extend the Truth in Caller ID rules to calls originating outside the United States, and to expand the scope of covered communications services.  The Digest also covers the FCC’s first-ever report on illegal robocalls, the push for call authentication and call blocking technology, and the renewed push in Congress to pass the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act.

We presented our first in a series of webinars digging into the California Consumer Privacy Act.   If you registered, you should have received a link to the recording and the materials.   If you missed it, we’ll help you out.  To access the webinar recording, please click here.   The materials can be downloaded here.  

Our next installment is coming up on March 27th and will address similarities and differences between the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and the CCPA.

On the heels of the passing one of the nation’s leading pieces of privacy legislation, the California Consumer Privacy Protection Act (“CCPA”), Governor Newsom, used his first “State of the State” address, to highlight his position on data protection and privacy, by saying that technology companies “make billions of dollars collecting, curating and monetizing our personal data have a duty to protect it” and that “Consumers have a right to know and control how their data is being used.”   

There will be one less new privacy regulation to worry about in 2019. In June of last year, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it would review its rules implementing the CAN-SPAM Act, regulating unsolicited commercial email.   Yesterday, the FTC announced that it had received 92 comments during the review process, and concluded that no changes to its CAN-SPAM Rules were needed at this time. 

The California Attorney General’s Office (CAGO) is conducting a series of public hearings around the state to gather input on the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA). We attended the CAGO’s January 25th, 2019 hearing.  The panel of CAGO staff informed those in attendance to anticipate a Notice of Proposed Regulatory Action in the fall of 2019. 

Leaving its fingerprints all over the privacy debate, the Illinois Supreme Court handed down a ruling that will significantly impact litigation under the state’s unique Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA” or “Act”), creating a potential boon for plaintiffs. In its January 25 opinion in Stacy Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp., the court unanimously sided with the plaintiff, ruling that actual harm is not a requirement to establish standing under BIPA.

We have been actively covering the California Consumer Privacy Act on our blog as it evolves including here and here.  Please join us on February 6th  for the first webinar in our California Consumer Privacy Act Series. 

Mintz Member Cynthia Larose and her thought leadership on all things Privacy has been selected for a National Law Review  “Go-To Thought Leadership Award.” The inaugural awards recognize 65 exceptional authors and legal organizations for their reporting of complex legislative and litigation news, as well as their strategic insight and overall legal industry knowledge.

Recently, Oath, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Verizon Communications agreed to pay $4.95 million to settle charges from the New York attorney general’s office that the company’s online advertising business was violating federal law.

It has been a busy few weeks for HIPAA enforcement. On Tuesday, the Office for Civil Rights announced its third resolution of a HIPAA breach in as many weeks. In this latest matter, OCR announced that Pagosa Springs Medical Center (PSMC), a critical access hospital in Colorado, has agreed to both pay $111,400 to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) as well as adopt a comprehensive, two-year corrective action plan (CAP) to address and settle potential HIPAA violations.

Recently, Amazon refused (registration required) to provide data from an Amazon Echo device in a case involving the a double homicide in response to an order issued by a New Hampshire state judge.  Prosecutors believe that the Echo may have recorded data relevant to the crime; a potential perpetrator has already been charged. 

Companies based outside of the European Union sometimes find it challenging to determine whether the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to them.  And if they finally work out that the GDPR applies, they then have the challenge of finding a local representative as required by Art. 27. 

Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it has finalized its expanded settlement with ride-haling giant, Uber Technologies, Inc. (“Uber”) related to two major data breach incidents. The initial breach occurred in 2014 and led to an FTC investigation into Uber’s data storage practices for rider and driver data.

If you are a medical device manufacturer, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that you should prepare a “cybersecurity bill of materials” before marketing your devices.  As outlined in our sister blog’s post, the requirement would require manufacturers to produce a list of the components that could be susceptible to vulnerabilities.

California continues to lead the nation in cybersecurity and privacy legislation on the heels of the recent California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”).  Governor Brown recently signed into law two nearly identical bills, Assembly Bill No. 1906 and Senate Bill No. 327 (the “Legislation”) each of which required the signing of the other to become law, on September 28th, 2018.

Welcome to October!  October 2018 marks the 15th year of the observance of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Awareness Alliance.  We’ll be keeping you updated on all things privacy and security throughout the month.

Late last week the White House released its National Cyber Strategy, setting forth its approach to protecting U.S. critical infrastructure from global cyber threats.

As previously noted in this blog, the Neiman Marcus payment card data theft class action reflects a lenient approach to the issue of standing in data breach cases.  In that case, the Seventh Circuit rejected arguments that customers claiming to have sustained only the theft of debit and credit card information had not alleged sufficient injury to have standing to sue.