Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On March 23, 2012, the Article 29 Working Party (the “Working Party”) adopted an Opinion on the European Commission’s data protection law reform proposals, including the draft Regulation that is of particular importance for businesses. The Working Party’s Opinion serves as the national data protection authorities’ contribution to the legislative process before the European Parliament and the European Council.

On March 27, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed settlement order with RockYou, Inc. (“RockYou”), a publisher and developer of applications used on popular social media sites. The FTC alleged that RockYou failed to protect the personal information of 32 million of its users, and violated multiple provisions of the FTC’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) Rule when it collected information from approximately 179,000 children.

On March 26, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission issued a new privacy report entitled “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: A Proposed Framework for Businesses and Policymakers.” The report charts a path forward for companies to act in the interest of protecting consumer privacy.

In his introductory remarks, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz indicated his support for Do Not Track stating, “Simply put, your computer is your property; no one has the right to put anything on it that you don’t want.” In later comments he predicted that if effective Do Not Track mechanisms are not available by the end of this year, the new Congress likely would introduce a legislative solution.

On March 21, 2012, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced that Maloney Properties Inc. (“MPI”), a property management firm, executed an Assurance of Discontinuance and agreed to pay $15,000 in civil penalties following an October 2011 theft of an unencrypted company-issued laptop. The laptop contained personal information of more than 600 Massachusetts residents and was left in an employee’s car overnight. MPI has indicated that it has no evidence of unauthorized access to or use of the personal information in connection with this breach.

On March 19, 2012, the European Commission hosted this year’s Safe Harbor Conference in Washington, D.C., to address the transfer of data from Europe to the United States. Although it appears the Safe Harbor framework will remain unchanged for the time being, it seems unlikely the United States will be considered adequate, or even interoperable, with the EU for purposes of cross-border data transfers.

On March 22, 2012, the 83rd Conference of the German Data Protection Commissioners came to an end in Potsdam. The attendees indicated their general support for the European Commission’s proposed reform package aimed at modernizing and harmonizing data protection laws in the EU, but insist that Member States should have the authority to implement more stringent data protection measures for the area of public administration.

On March 20, 2012, the Senate of the Philippines unanimously approved the omnibus Data Privacy Act of 2011, also known as “An Act Protecting Individual Personal Information in Information and Communications Systems in the Government and the Private Sector, Creating for This Purpose a National Data Protection Commission, and for Other Purposes” (S.B. 2965). Once signed into law, the legislation will impose a privacy regime modeled on the EU Data Protection Directive. It features significant notice, consent and data breach notification requirements, and it imposes direct ...

On March 21, 2012, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced a one-week extension to the deadline for responses to their March 2 request for public comments on the multistakeholder process to develop consumer data privacy codes of conduct. Comments are now due on Monday, April 2, 2012. The request for comments relates to both the topics and processes that will inform the creation of binding codes of conduct as discussed in the Obama Administration’s February release of a framework for a Consumer Privacy Bill of ...

On March 13, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that it had settled the first case related to the HITECH Act Breach Notification Rule. BlueCross Blue Shield of Tennessee (“BCBS Tennessee”) agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle potential HIPAA violations related to the October 2009 theft of 57 unencrypted hard drives containing protected health information (“PHI”) from a network data closet at a leased facility leased in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

On February 24, 2012, Eric Chabrow of BankInfoSecurity interviewed Lisa J. Sotto, partner and head of the Global Privacy and Data Security practice at Hunton & Williams LLP. Discussing the need for a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, Sotto briefly outlined the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed bill, and its potential impact on businesses.

A growing number of companies are implementing cloud computing solutions to lower IT costs and increase efficiency. Although cloud technology offers an array of advantages, organizations that rely on the cloud must compensate for the corresponding increase in risk associated with outsourcing business operations to a third party. A recent article authored by a Hunton & Williams Insurance Litigation & Counseling partner discusses the ways in which business interruptions caused by cloud service provider failures may be covered by contingent business interruption insurance ...

• Mending Fences after a Breach Thursday, March 8, 12:15 p.m. Speakers include: Lisa J. Sotto, partner and head of the Global Privacy and Data Security practice, Hunton & Williams LLP; Susan Grant, Director of Consumer Protection, Consumer Federation of America; and Joanne B. McNabb, Chief, California Office of Privacy Protection.

On February 24, 2012, the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) ruled that certain provisions in the Federal Telecommunications Act concerning the disclosure of telecom user data to law enforcement agencies violate the German constitution. The Court held that strict conditions apply when law enforcement authorities and intelligence agencies ask telecommunications service providers (which may include hospitals and hotels) to turn over certain user data, i.e. passwords and PIN codes.