Privacy & Cybersecurity

It's Monday! Once again, data breaches and hacks are front and center, so here are three stories you should know about to start your week.

Welcome to the dog days of summer 2015. Three privacy & security bits and bytes to start your week (if you are reading this on vacation ... good for you!)

In its recently-filed motion to dismiss claims of card-issuing banks arising from the September 2014 theft of payment card data from Home Depot point of sale terminals, Home Depot employs an approach typically used to respond to consumer claims.

Facing “industry stakeholders [that] were unable to agree on any concrete scenario” in which affirmative consent should be obtained from individuals before employing facial recognition technologies, nine consumer advocacy organizations made an about-face and withdrew from the multistakeholder process coordinated by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (“NTIA”).

Don’t forget to register for our upcoming webinar discussion with an expert panel on Risk Assessments!

The first Privacy Monday of the summer!
It's appropriate that the "boys of summer" feature prominently in today's post.

California again has provided a model of privacy legislation for other states to follow. New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan recently signed into law House Bill 520 (the “Bill”), a bipartisan effort to establish guidelines for the protection of student online personal information.

In the absence of any meaningful moves in Congress to enact uniform data breach notification, the states continue to make adjustments to existing laws to better protect affected residents in their states.

The news continues to pour in about the two-part massive hack into the federal government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the compromise of personal information of millions of present and former federal employees.

As an update to our blog post, "Data Breach Affects Millions of Current and Former Government Workers", a union representing federal workers is now claiming that the hack may be worse than originally feared.

Register now for our June Wednesday Webinar. This webinar, the sixth in our Privacy series, will address risk assessment best practices and data breach readiness. A risk assessment is the foundational step in the development of a comprehensive privacy and security program for your company.

The Commerce Department's export control agency, BIS, has proposed a new rule to control exports of equipment and software designed or modified to perform network intrusion and internet protocol communications surveillance. 

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced that hackers have stolen the personal information of approximately 4 million current and former federal employees, including names, birthdates and social security numbers. 

Home Depot has staked its defense of consumer claims arising from the 2014 theft of payment card data from the home improvement retailer on the asserted absence of injuries sufficient to confer standing to sue. 

Happy June - the first day of meteorological summer!
In the last month, both a federal and state court denied coverage for claims relating to an insured’s handling of electronic data.

Target’s attempt to resolve claims of MasterCard-issuing banks through a $19 million private settlement with MasterCard has been terminated for failure of issuers of 90% of the affected cards to accept the settlement by the Wednesday, May 20 acceptance deadline. 

If your company has an online presence -- or provides marketing or advertising services -- you should be registered for the fifth webinar in our 2015 Wednesday Privacy Webinar series: The Long Reach of COPPA.   Recall the recent FTC settlement agreement with Yelp -- clearly a site not targeted at children -- that cost the online review company $450,000.

The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) has issued guidance for its members on the use of non-cookie technologies for Interest-Based Advertising (IBA) and Ad Delivery and Reporting (ADR) (Guidance). The NAI is a self-regulatory organization for third-party digital advertising companies.

Cyber security, and cyber insurance, have dominated the industry headlines for several years now, but even as companies, brokers and insurers work to develop these products, there has been a dearth of case law interpreting key provisions.

It's Monday morning -- do you know your privacy/security status?
Here are a few bits and bytes to start your week.