Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On November 19, 2019, Hunton Andrews Kurth will host an in-person breakfast briefing in the firm’s London office to explore the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), against the backdrop of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

In the seminar, we will discuss:

• The CCPA in the context of the GDPR, covering the similarities and differences between the frameworks
•  Key CCPA obligations
• The CCPA’s approach to enforcement and penalties
• How businesses are approaching CCPA compliance, and leveraging their GDPR work

The event will be led by Hunton partners ...

On October 21, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission took action against two companies alleged to have engaged in the business of false online reviews and social media influence. In the first case, the FTC entered into a consent decree with cosmetics marketer Sunday Riley, LLC, and the company’s owner, who sell products at Sephora stores and online at Sephora.com. According to the FTC’s complaint, disguised as ordinary consumers, Sunday Riley employees and Ms. Riley herself posted fake 5-star reviews of the company’s products on Sephora’s website. Under the terms of the FTC’s agreement, the company and its principal are barred from posting fake reviews, must clearly identify endorsers, and must instruct staff on their disclosure obligations. The FTC vote on the action was 3-2, with Commissioners Chopra and Slaughter dissenting on the grounds that the settlement did not include a monetary payment or an admission of guilt.

On October 22, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission announced that, for the first time, it has brought a case against a developer of “Stalking” Apps. The agency alleges that Retina-X Studios, and its owner, James N. Johns, Jr., developed and marketed three apps that allowed purchasers to surreptitiously monitor the movements and online activities of users of devices on which the apps were installed without the knowledge or permission of the device’s user. The FTC also alleges that the app developer took steps to ensure that a device user would not be aware that the app had been installed, bypassing mobile device manufacturers’ security restrictions and leaving the device vulnerable to cybersecurity risks. The apps were marketed as tools for monitoring the behavior of employees and children. The FTC further alleges that the app developer issued policies that made inaccurate representations regarding the security of their online systems, which were recently found to have been hacked twice during earlier incidents.

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP announced today that former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has joined the firm as global strategy advisor at the Centre for Information Policy Leadership (“CIPL”), the firm’s global privacy and cybersecurity think tank.

On October 4, 2019, the Presidency of the European Council published its revised text (the “Revised Draft”) of the Proposal for a Regulation Concerning the Respect for Private Life and the Protection of Personal Data in Electronic Communications (the “Draft ePrivacy Regulation”). The Revised Draft was released in preparation for the Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society’s meeting, which took place on October 11, 2019 (the “WP Tele”) and introduces limited amendments compared to the draft amendments proposed by the Presidency of the European Council last month.

On October 11, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 1130, which expands the types of personal information covered by California’s breach notification law to include, when compromised in combination with an individual’s name: (1) additional government identifiers, such as tax identification number, passport number, military identification number, or other unique identification number issued on a government document commonly used to verify the identity of a specific individual; and (2) biometric data generated from measurements or technical analysis of human body characteristics (e.g., fingerprint, retina, or iris image) used to authenticate a specific individual. Biometric data does not include a physical or digital photograph unless used or stored for facial recognition purposes.

Recent headlines underscore the security challenges faced by public-facing businesses. From physical threats to cyber attacks targeting a wide range of critical infrastructure, companies in diverse sectors, such as the financial, retail, entertainment, energy, transportation, real estate, communications and other areas, face a challenging landscape of risks and potential liabilities. Join us on October 28, 2019, at 12:00 p.m. EST, for a webinar to discuss these issues, including why companies should consider SAFETY Act protection and how to obtain it.

On October 11, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he signed all five of the California Legislature’s September 2019 amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) into law: AB-25, AB-874, AB-1146, AB-1355 and AB-1564. The Governor had until October 13, 2019, to sign or veto the amendments, which were passed at the end of the Legislature’s 2019 legislative session. This news came just a day after California Attorney General Xavier Becerra released proposed regulations implementing the CCPA.

On October 10, 2019, the California Attorney General (“AG”) announced Proposed Regulations implementing the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”). Along with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Action and the Text of Proposed Regulations, the AG issued an Initial Statement of Reasons elaborating on the purposes of the proposed regulations.

On September 17, 2019, the German Conference of Data Protection Authorities (Datenschutzkonferenz, (“DSK”) examined a proposal for calculating administrative fines under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).  The press release of the DSK states that this initiative aims to ensure a calculation of fines against violations of the GDPR that is “systematic, transparent and understandable.” However, the press release refrains from describing the criteria of the fining model officially, as the fining model has not yet been adopted by the DSK.

On October 1, 2019, China’s Provisions on Cyber Protection of Children’s Personal Information (“Provisions”) became effective. The Cyberspace Administration of China had released the Provisions on August 23, 2019, and they are the first rules focusing on the protection of children’s personal information in China.

On September 25, 2019, the Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton Andrews Kurth (“CIPL”) and the Instituto Brasiliense de Direito Público (“IDP”) had the first of a series of workshops for their joint project on “Brazilian Data Protection Implementation and Effective Regulation.” This is an exclusive project that aims to contribute to the debates around the Brazilian Data Protection Law (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais (“LGPD”)), including the development of good practices for data governance and the implementation and enforcement of this law. As part of this project, CIPL will organize additional multi-stakeholder workshops, webinars and training sessions, and prepare white papers on key topics for data protection in Brazil.

The U.S. Chamber’s Technology Engagement Center (“C_TEC”) and Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation (“GRC”) recently released a set of ten principles essential for attaining the full potential of AI technologies.

The principles, drafted with input from more than 50 Chamber member companies, stress the importance of creating a sensible and innovation-forward approach to addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by AI.

On October 2, 2019, the UK Court of Appeal handed down its judgment on the appeal in Richard Lloyd v. Google LLC, in which Richard Lloyd, a consumer protection advocate, seeks to bring a representative action on behalf of four million Apple iPhone users against Google LLC in the United States. Previously, the High Court had refused to grant permission for the proceedings to be served outside the UK. The Court of Appeal reversed the High Court’s judgment, granting permission for service outside the UK and allowing the representative action to proceed. The judgment is significant as it paves the way for representative actions (equivalent to class actions) for data protection infringements in the UK.

On October 15, 2019, Hunton Andrews Kurth will host a luncheon seminar in our Brussels office on Addressing GDPR Challenges: An Interactive Session on Handling Data Breaches. In this roundtable discussion, our speakers will lead a dialogue to share experiences on handling data breaches under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

On October 1, 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued its decision in an important case involving consent for the use of cookies by a German business called Planet49. Importantly, the Court held that (1) consent for cookies cannot be lawfully established through the use of pre-ticked boxes, and (2) any consent obtained regarding cookies cannot be sufficiently informed in compliance with applicable law if the user cannot reasonably comprehend how the cookies employed on a given website will function.

On September 17, 2019, the Belgian Data Protection Authority (the “Belgian DPA”) imposed a fine of EUR 10,000 on a shop for the disproportionate use of customers’ electronic identity cards (the “eIDs ”) – a national identification card.