Over the last several years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has regularly used its authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act to bring cases against companies due to their allegedly unreasonable data security measures. The FTC has paid particular attention to the safeguards that manufacturers have implemented in electronic devices sold to consumers. Recently, … Continue Reading
With the election of current California Attorney General Kamala Harris to the U.S. Senate, Governor Jerry Brown was tasked with appointing her replacement. On December 1, he announced that his pick is U.S. Representative Xavier Becerra, head of the House Democratic caucus. Becerra was first elected to the House in 1992 and has also served … Continue Reading
Wages may be stagnant in the United States, but one thing on the rise is the price of getting on the wrong side of the Federal Trade Commission. Effective August 1, 2016, the maximum civil penalty dollar amount for violating section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, or failing to comply with COPPA or … Continue Reading
This post was written by Timothy J. Nagle. Yesterday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued OCC Bulletin 2013-29 on Third-Party Relationships. The document rescinds OCC Bulletin 2001-47 and OCC Advisory Letter 2000-9, both of which had served as the basis for supplier management practices and inspections for many years. It is much … Continue Reading
In June 2013, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Ireland’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a mutual assistance and information exchange program to secure compliance with data protection and privacy laws on both sides of the Atlantic. The privacy and data protection laws between Ireland and the United … Continue Reading
Today, the Federal Trade Commission released detailed guidance on privacy in the mobile environment – at the same time it announced its largest-ever settlement with an app developer for alleged privacy violations. Combined with aggressive action on mobile privacy issues by the California attorney general’s office, Mobile Privacy Disclosures provides every company associated with a … Continue Reading
This post was also written by Amy S. Mushahwar. This morning the FTC released a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule. This is not a final rule. The notice suggests further modifications to proposed definitions released in the September 2011 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the COPPA … Continue Reading
This post was also written by Christopher G. Cwalina and Amy S. Mushahwar. Today, in a ceremony with much fanfare, Secretary of Commerce John Bryson and Federal Trade Commission Chairman John Liebowitz outlined the Obama administration’s privacy blueprint for a “consumer bill of rights.” Shortly thereafter, the Department of Commerce released its long-awaited consumer privacy … Continue Reading
This post was written by Amy S. Mushahwar. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) acted today to tighten its rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and conform them, to the extent possible, with the more stringent rules already in place at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under the Telephone Sales Rule (TSR). This change will … Continue Reading
On September 15, Barnes & Noble (“B&N”) acquired several of Borders’ intellectual property assets, including a database of customer information, as part of Borders’ bankruptcy auction. The sale of those assets hit a potential roadblock on Thursday, though, when a New York bankruptcy judge refused to approve the transaction, saying that he needed more time … Continue Reading
This post was also written by Chris Cwalina. In her new article, “The Intersection of Consumer Protection and Competition in the New World of Privacy,” Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill cautions that the pursuit of privacy may conflict with the pursuit of a competitive market. Commissioner Brill’s article, published in the Spring Edition of Competition … Continue Reading
Reed Smith Attorney Amy Mushahwar was recently interviewed by IT Business Edge on the McCain-Kerry Bill. According to Amy, “if enacted, the bill would expand the Federal Trade Commission’s jurisdiction to include telecommunications companies for privacy matters. Typically, telecom companies would not be within the FTC’s jurisdiction.”… Continue Reading
This post was also written by Chris Cwalina and Amy Mushahwar. We’ve been busy here in Washington with two seminal privacy reports released within a span of two weeks. At Reed Smith, our interdisciplinary team of former government officials, former in-house attorneys, class action litigators and engineers (in the US and internationally) are reviewing the releases … Continue Reading
This post was also written by Christopher G. Cwalina, Amy S. Mushahwar, and Frederick Lah. On December 1, 2010 the FTC released its long-awaited Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change. This 123-page preliminary staff report proposes a sea change in US privacy law. The FTC is accepting comments on this report until January … Continue Reading
