Privacy & Cybersecurity

If you are one of the approximately 1.3 billion people who use Facebook, you’ve likely experienced the phenomenon where a single event (like Luiz Suarez biting that Italian guy or pretty much anything involving TSA) manages to raise the ire of a large number of your Facebook friends, causing them to flood your timeline with single-issue Facebook user rage. 

Another important decision has been rendered in the ongoing In re: Hulu Privacy Litigation saga pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, this time denying – without prejudice – the proposed certification of a class of Hulu users pursuing claims involving Hulu’s allegedly wrongful disclosure of “cookies.”

Not only the last Monday in June, but the last day of June. There are quite a few privacy-related things taking effect tomorrow, July 1.  

Finding that cellphones contain the "privacies of life", the U.S. Supreme Court issued a broad endorsement of cell phone privacy, unanimously holding that law enforcement may not search digital information seized from an arrestee’s person without first obtaining a warrant.

New Jersey U.S. District Judge Esther Salas agreed to allow Wyndham Hotels and Resorts LLC to immediately appeal to the Third Circuit a ruling affirming the FTC’s authority to bring data security cases.

The most recent Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) HIPAA enforcement action serves as an important reminder to health care providers of the security risks associated with a mishandled medical records custody transfer and the risks of leaving paper records in the driveway. 

Today, in Commonwealth v. Gelfgatt, No. SJC-11358 (Mass. June 25, 2014), a divided Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that under certain circumstances, a court may compel a criminal defendant to provide the password to encrypted digital evidence seized by the government without violating either the Fifth Amendment or Article Twelve of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.

DC Update from Politico Morning Tech
"DATA BREACH DRAFT DELAYED - The thorny issue of FTC enforcement has slowed efforts to release a draft of Rep. Lee Terry's data breach bill, according to sources close to the process.

Last week, the HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) released two reports required by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act: (i) the Annual Report to Congress on Breaches of Unsecured Protected Information (Breach Report); and (ii) the Annual Report to Congress on HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rule Compliance (Compliance Report).

Just a little over a month after settling charges of false promises of disappearing user messages (among other things) with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), mobile app developer Snapchat, Inc. (“Snapchat” or “Company”) announced that on June 12th  the Company entered into an agreement with the Office of Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler to resolve similar claims of consumer deception as well as additional allegations of failure to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and its implementing rule (as amended, the “COPPA Rule”).

There are only a handful of decisions addressing whether a commercial general liability (CGL) policy provides coverage for lawsuits brought against retailers allegedly collecting their customers’  ZIP code information. Thus, when a decision is issued in this area, particularly a decision denying coverage, it is noteworthy.

What's that old saying ... "a day late and a dollar short?" Here is our Privacy Monday roundup ... on Tuesday.

SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar recently spoke at the New York Stock Exchange Conference “Cyber Risks and the Boardroom.” In his speech, Commissioner Aguilar emphasized the importance of cybersecurity and how fast the need for cybersecurity has grown in such a short time period, pointing out that U.S. companies experienced a 42% increase between 2011 and 2012 in the number of successful cyber-attacks they incurred per week.

Welcome to another week, and our Privacy Monday look at top issues.
California Attorney General Puts the Focus on the Consumer

Attorney-client privilege, and how to ensure that advice and counsel to their clients is covered by the privilege, is always a top-of-mind issue for in-house counsel, particularly with respect to compliance questions. The privacy office does not always report into the legal department in all companies.

The most common defense against class actions for data breach has itself been breached in a ruling last week by the West Virginia Supreme Court.

The first Monday in June is also the first Monday of meteorological summer -and a welcome sight after a brutally-long winter for many of our readers.  So, here's to a happy Summer!

On December 20, 2000, in his statement regarding the signing of the National Moment of Remembrance Act, President Clinton said: “While these heroes should be honored every day for their profound contribution to securing our Nation's freedom, they and their families should be especially honored on Memorial Day.

 (LONDON) Google – along with the rest of us – is still considering the implications of the European Court of Justice’s May 13, 2014 decision that Google must remove links to a newspaper article containing properly published information about a Spanish individual on the basis that the information is no longer relevant or accurate.