Businesses scrambling to comply with the dozens of varying state laws governing data privacy and security breaches may have a new ally in California Attorney General Kamala Harris, but they shouldn’t expect her to relax any standards. In her introduction to the 2016 California Data Breach Report, Harris addressed the concerns of many who have … Continue Reading
Should “cyber products” be added to the United States Munitions List (USML)? Cyber-hacking and cyberterrorism are growing concerns for the national security of the United States, so this question could not go unanswered. The Defense Trade Advisory Group (DTAG) decided that “cyber products” should not be added to the USML. The addition of this broad … Continue Reading
Still recovering from its 2013 data breach, Target Corp. agreed to a $39 million settlement with a class of banks suing the well-known retailer, marking the settlement as the first class-wide data breach pact ever reached on behalf of financial institutions. Target’s data breach exposed 40 million credit and debit cards to fraud during the 2013 … Continue Reading
In a landmark decision, an administrative law judge dismissed the FTC’s long-running data security lawsuit against Atlanta-based cancer screening laboratory, LabMD Inc., following an alleged data breach. Chief Administrative Law Judge D. Michael Chappell (the “ALJ”) ruled in his Initial Decision that the FTC had failed to prove that the laboratory’s alleged conduct harmed, or … Continue Reading
With the onslaught of smart watches, smart thermostats, and even smart refrigerators that allow you to Tweet hangry messages to your followers, it’s only natural that a “smart city” would follow. This week, San Francisco city officials agreed to run a one-year pilot project with Sigfox – an FCC certified French start-up that builds low-power … Continue Reading
Before September 15, 2015, no federal court had certified a class action to litigate security breach claims. But now U.S. District Court Judge Paul A. Magnuson, overseeing the In re: Target Corporation Customer MDL, has certified as a class: All entities in the United States and its Territories that issued payment cards compromised in the … Continue Reading
On August 24, 2015, the Third Circuit, in a highly anticipated ruling, upheld a 2014 New Jersey District Court decision that the FTC has authority under section 5 of the FTC Act to regulate “unfair” data security practices without engaging in formal rulemaking. As we have previously discussed, the implications of the lower court ruling, … Continue Reading
More than a year-and-a-half after Target’s December 2013 announcement of a massive data breach, the retailer has reached an agreement with Visa, whereby it will reimburse Visa and certain affected card issuers up to $67 million for expenses incurred in connection with the breach. This will include costs associated with reissuing cards. The agreement comes … Continue Reading
The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (‘PCI SSC’) has had a busy year thus far updating both its Card Production Security Requirements and its Data Security Standards (‘PCI DSS’). First, on 10 April, the PCI SSC updated its Card Production Requirements (guidance published to help card producers secure the card production process from creation … Continue Reading
The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (‘PCI SSC’) has had a busy year thus far updating both its Card Production Security Requirements and its Data Security Standards (‘PCI DSS’). First, on 10 April, the PCI SSC updated its Card Production Requirements (guidance published to help card producers secure the card production process from creation … Continue Reading
By Paul Bond, Lisa B. Kim and Christine Nielsen Czuprynski on Posted in In the Courts
The proposed settlement agreement in the Target data breach consumer litigation that we reported on on March 19, 2015 has been approved by the judge, and a final approval hearing set for November 10, 2015. Based on this order, class members should start to receive notice of the settlement within 45 days of yesterday’s order.… Continue Reading
By Paul Bond, Christine Nielsen Czuprynski and Lisa B. Kim on Posted in In the Courts
A proposed settlement has been reached in the multi-district consumer litigation Target faces following a data breach that compromised at least 40 million credit cards during the 2013 holiday shopping season. The settlement, which requires Target to pay $10 million into a settlement fund and adopt specific data security measures, still needs court approval. If … Continue Reading
In September 2014 we reported on the UK’s intention to stamp out a practice commonly known as “enforced subject access requests”. This concerned the previously dormant section 56 of the UK Data Protection Act 1998 (‘DPA’), which, following an announcement from the Ministry of Justice, was implemented on March 10, 2015. Under this section, it … Continue Reading
The federal government may be pushing a cybersecurity and data privacy agenda, but that doesn’t mean that the states are taking a back seat. The state attorneys general are maintaining their focus on issues relating to privacy and data security and expanding the scope of that focus to address the ever-evolving nature of those issues. … Continue Reading
It is foreseeable that not many of Facebook’s millions of users every day have ever had a look at the social network’s Terms & Conditions. Only the readers of the fine print may know that these Terms & Conditions provide that any claim related to Facebook must be resolved exclusively in the United States District … Continue Reading
In February 2015, Ofgem (the UK’s Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) published its Decision on Extending the Smart Meter Framework to Remote Meters (the Decision). This confirms that, following a public consultation, the privacy requirements embedded in the supplier licence terms and which will apply to suppliers’ use of customer data from “smart meters” … Continue Reading
The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council has released a bulletin on impending revisions to version 3.0 Payment Application Data Security Standards (PA-DSS) and version 3.0 of the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), which we reported on in January 2014. To ensure the continued protection of consumers’ payment data, the PCI Security Standards Council … Continue Reading
The UK Information Commissioner’s Officer (the “ICO”), in a letter to Global Witness (in Steinmetz and others v Global Witness) (the “Letter”), stated that non-media organisations may rely on the special-purposes exemption for journalism in s32 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the “DPA”), to withhold personal data in response to Data Subject Access Requests. … Continue Reading
On 3 February, the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party published its ‘Cookie Sweep Combined Analysis – Report’. The sweep was undertaken by the WP29 in partnership with eight of the European data protection regulators, including the UK’s ICO, France’s CNIL and Spain’s AEPD, in order to assess the current steps taken by website operators … Continue Reading
In December 2014, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) released the“Big Data Guidelines for Data Protection” (Guidelines). Aimed at Information and Communications Service Providers (ICSPs), they are designed to prevent the misuse of “publicly available information” to create and exploit new information. The Guidelines expressly permit ICSPs to collect and use “publicly available information”, within certain … Continue Reading
In January, China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) released its ‘Measures on Penalties for Infringing Upon the Rights and Interests of Consumers’ (Measures) which are due to take effect March 15, 2015. These Measures flesh out China’s Consumer Rights Protection Law (CRPL) which was amended in March 2014 and provides guidance as to … Continue Reading
The EU Article 29 Working Party (“WP29”) has published a letter to the European Commission (“EC”) on the scope of health data in relation to lifestyle and well-being apps, following the EC’s Working Document on mHealth and the outcome of its public consultation, which generated interest in strong privacy and security tools, and strengthened enforcement … Continue Reading
On 30 January 2015, Google signed an Undertaking with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to improve and amend the Privacy Policy it adopted 1 March 2012. Among other things, the modifications to the Privacy Policy allowed Google to combine personal data across all services and products. For example, personal data collected through YouTube could now … Continue Reading
In recent years, the number of African countries which have enacted privacy frameworks or are planning data protection laws has vastly increased. Currently, 14 African countries have privacy framework laws and some sort of data protection authorities in place. Once the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal data Protection (Convention) is ratified across … Continue Reading
