Chris is a corporate attorney and a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP). He has significant experience handling legal and business issues relating to technology, data privacy and security, brand protection, contract negotiation, licensing, and product development.

Chris has held several leadership positions at technology, consumer product, and e-commerce companies. Prior to joining Mintz, he was Director of Legal Affairs and Privacy Officer at The Predictive Index, a high-growth, SaaS-based personnel assessment and technology company with an expansive international reseller network. Chris provided strategic counsel to management and all business units on a broad range of corporate, technology, and privacy issues.

On the privacy side, he delivered guidance across the organization on US and international data protection laws, including GDPR, as well as data privacy, data security, data collection and use, cross-border data transfers, security incident response, and vendor management. His general corporate work included drafting and negotiating a wide range technology agreements and commercial contracts, including distribution, reseller, and vendor agreements. He also managed an international intellectual property (IP) portfolio, negotiated licenses, advised the company’s marketing team on brand strategy and other issues, managed cross-border transactions, and provided legal oversight of M&A initiatives. In addition, Chris advised on employment law issues related to use of pre-employment and personnel assessments.

Earlier Chris was Corporate Counsel at Benrus, LLC, the watchmaking and lifestyle company.
He managed the company’s legal function through the early-stage revival of its iconic retail brand — negotiating contracts, counseling on IP matters, and preparing for growth-stage funding.

Chris was also Associate General Counsel for Alex and Ani, a prominent international retailer. During his two and a half years with the company, its revenue grew from $4.5 million to over $350 million. Chris attended to a wide range of commercial contracts, managed the company’s IP portfolio, advised on brand protection, and provided counsel on a wide range of additional matters, including privacy and employment issues. He began his legal career as an associate in the Providence, Rhode Island office of a large law firm.

NYDFS Issues New Guidance Regarding COVID-19 Cybersecurity Risks

April 20, 2020 | Blog | By Cynthia Larose, Christopher Buontempo

The New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) recently issued new guidance to regulated entities regarding cybersecurity awareness during the COVID-19 pandemic - citing a significant increase in cybercrime and criminals seeking to exploit the pandemic.

April 13, 2020 | Blog | By Christopher Buontempo

If your company is marketing any smart device, particularly if the device is involved with home security and collects personal information from users, it’s time to pay attention to the story of Tapplock. Tapplock, Inc. (“Tapplock”), is a Canadian Internet of Things (“IoT”) company that sells fingerprint-enabled padlocks that are connected to the Internet (“smart locks”).

April 2, 2020 | Blog | By Cynthia Larose, Christopher Buontempo

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting office shutdowns has required many organizations to quickly transition to remote working environments. Going remote often requires a number of technology solutions and tools such as video conferencing, email, cloud file storage, file sharing, chat and communication platforms, and remote desktop applications, just to name a few.

March 13, 2020 | Blog | By Christopher Buontempo , Cynthia Larose

With cases of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) emerging in nearly every state, many businesses are taking swift action in an effort to curb its spread. Teleworking, “remote working,” or simply “working from home,” is a centerpiece of those efforts. While remote working arrangements may be effective to slow the community spread of COVID-19 from person to person, they present cybersecurity challenges that can be different than on-premise work.

February 19, 2020 | Blog | By Cynthia Larose, Christopher Buontempo

The Washington Privacy Act has overwhelmingly passed the Washington state senate by a vote of 46-1. Similar legislation passed the state senate last year and failed in the Washington house of representatives. We will track the bill in the Washington house and update on its status.

February 13, 2020 | Blog | By Christopher Buontempo , Cynthia Larose

Back in October, we provided a summary of Article 2 of the California Attorney General’s Initial Proposed CCPA draft regulations, which specify certain notices that must be given to consumers at the time of collection of their personal information, including consumers’ rights to opt-out of the sale of their personal information, and notices of financial incentives a business may offer in exchange for consumers’ personal information.

February 4, 2020 | Blog | By Christopher Buontempo , Cynthia Larose

Aristotle first suggested that “nature abhors a vacuum,” meaning that where there is a void, the universe seeks to fill it. Although there has been some movement in Congress towards comprehensive federal privacy legislation states like California have taken up the gauntlet to fill the vacuum. We now have the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in force and expect to see other states take up similar laws this year.

October 16, 2019 | Blog | By Christopher Buontempo

Article 2 of the California Attorney General’s draft regulations specify certain notices that must be given to consumers at the time of collection of their personal information, including consumers’ rights to opt-out of the sale of their personal information, and notices of financial incentives a business may offer in exchange for consumers’ personal information. Article 2 also provides specific CCPA requirements for company privacy policies.

October 15, 2019 | Blog | By Christopher Buontempo , Cynthia Larose

The California Attorney General’s office (CA AG) has published the long-awaited implementing regulations to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). In addition to the regulations, the CA AG also released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Initial Statement of Reasons to support the draft regulations. The CA AG will hold a series of public hearings as outlined in the Notice of Proposed Regulations, and will be accepting written comments from the public on the regulations until 5:00 PM PST on December 6, 2019.

August 2, 2019 | Blog | By Christopher Buontempo , Cynthia Larose

We know we told you yesterday about the Equifax settlement and how you could make a claim in connection with the breach. Well, consumers whose personal information was compromised in Equifax’s massive 2017 data breach are in for another surprise: they may not receive the entire $125 payout option initially offered following Equifax’s settlement agreement with the FTC.

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Mintz Advises Quorum Cyber Security on Acquisition of Kivu Consulting

January 27, 2025

Mintz represented Quorum Cyber Security, a platform company of Charlesbank Capital Partners, in its acquisition of Kivu Consulting, Inc., a global cybersecurity firm specializing in Incident Response.

How to Maintain Cybersecurity for Your Remote Workers

March 27, 2020

Mintz Associate Christopher Buontempo was quoted in an article published by Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Online on security plans, policies, and other privacy measures for businesses to protect data as they manage their newly-remote workforces during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

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2020