With newly proposed legislation, the House has joined the Senate in introducing bipartisan legislation making changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This pending legislation, when combined with the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) ongoing COPPA review and workshop, foreshadows expanded COPPA protections, especially for teenagers between 13 and 15 years of age.
In…
On May 21, 2019, representatives of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Office of DC Attorney General (AG) Karl Racine visited Reed Smith to discuss data privacy trends to watch at the federal and state level. In an IAPP KnowledgeNet presentation moderated by Reed Smith partner Divonne Smoyer, Maneesha Mithal (associate director of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, Bureau of Consumer Protection) and Ben Wiseman (director of AG Racine’s Office of Consumer Protection) discussed their expectations for a federal privacy law, expanding state authority in the privacy arena, and privacy resources, among other things, in a wide-ranging conversation.
Continue Reading FTC and DC Attorney General’s office discuss federal and state privacy trends at Reed Smith
Following President Obama’s signing of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA” or the “Act”) into law last week, parties are beginning to file lawsuits asserting claims under the DTSA. As widely reported, before the DTSA’s enactment, civil trade secret legislation was solely a creature of state law. Consequently, absent another basis for federal jurisdiction, parties could only bring a civil trade secret claim in state court. The DTSA dramatically changed trade secret litigation practice by opening the door to federal court through creation of a federal civil trade secret misappropriation cause of action.
Application of the DTSA, however, is not retroactive. By the express language of the Act, it only applies to acts of misappropriation occurring on or after May 11, 2016, the date on which it was enacted.
Continue Reading First Round of Defend Trade Secrets Act Complaints Alleging Misappropriation Activity Both Before and After DTSA’s Enactment: Will They Stick?
For years, employers have sought access to federal courts for trade secret misappropriation claims against departing employees who have taken the employer’s proprietary information to use in a new venture or for a new employer. Absent diversity, employers’ options to secure federal jurisdiction were limited, however.
In the 2000s, employers began including claims under the…
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…
This post was written by Frederick Lah.
Data collection, especially in the context of Do Not Track is an important issue. The FTC has said that an effective Do Not Track system should go beyond opting consumers out of receiving targeted advertisement – it should opt them out of the collection of behavioral data for…
This post was also written by Amy Mushahwar.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order on July 20, 2012 to investigate whether any Authorized Certification Authorities (ACAs) had violated the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Standards, which outline various security requirements and specifications for the electric grid.…
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…
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…
