Today the European Commission adopted an evaluation report on the Data Retention Directive. This Directive requires EU Member States to ensure that telecommunications service providers retain certain categories of data for the purpose of investigations, detection and prosecution of serious crime, as defined by the national law of the Member States. Since its adoption in
April 2011
SWIFT Messaging Raises Unique Financial Privacy Issues
By Mike Nonaka
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, provides an organizational platform for facilitating international payments. U.S. and foreign financial institutions use SWIFT messages to initiate, process, receive, and settle payment orders. The amount of information exchanged via SWIFT is immense. More than 9,000 financial institutions in 209 countries rely on SWIFT to process…
FTC Official Outlines Commission’s Efforts to Combat Identity Theft
By Mike Nonaka
Yesterday, Maneesha Mithal, Associate Director of the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, testified before a subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee on the use of social security numbers (SSNs) in identity theft. In addition to providing background information on the use of SSNs in identity theft and the FTC’s recommendations for…
Survey Indicates Banks Taking “Wait and See” Approach to Mobile Payments
By Mike Nonaka
Fiserv, Inc. recently released the results of a survey suggesting banks are taking a “wait and see” approach to mobile payments. Fiserv commissioned and Forrester Consulting conducted the survey of 15 large U.S. banks, which found that most of the banks offered mobile banking services allowing customers to make transfers between accounts, find an ATM,…
Online Advertising Industry Finalizes European Self-Regulation Framework
Key players in the European online advertising industry — including such heavyweights as Google and Microsoft — have signed a self-regulatory Framework intended to improve transparency and user control when behavioral ads are delivered by a third party (i.e., by a company that is not the operator of the website on which the ad is delivered). Behavioral…
EU Working Party 29 Publishes New Series of Opinions
By Dan Cooper
The EU Art 29. Working Party finished its 80th plenary meeting in Brussels last week. This week, the Party released a series of new policy opinions produced during the plenary. The highlights included:
- A declaration that, in WP 29’s opinion, New Zealand’s data protection regime is now “adequate” for the purposes of international data transfer. This opinion will now be
…
Stearns Introduces “Consumer Privacy Protection Act”
As expected, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) and co-sponsor Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) introduced the “Consumer Privacy Protection Act of 2011” earlier today. The bill follows closely on the heels of the “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights Act” (S. 799), which was introduced yesterday by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ). …
“Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act” Introduced in Senate
Today, Senators John Kerry and John McCain introduced the much-anticipated “Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011,” a bill that would require businesses that collect, use, store or transfer consumer information to implement strong privacy protections in the development of their products and to provide consumers with meaningful choices about how their data…
SEC Imposes Fines under Regulation S-P for the First Time
By Mike Nonaka
On April 7, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a total of $55,000 in fines against three former executives of a securities broker-dealer for violations of the privacy and safeguard rules in Regulation S-P. The fines mark the first time the SEC has imposed administrative fines for violations of these rules. Copies of the…
Senate Judiciary Committee Continues ECPA Review
On Wednesday, April 6, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to examine ECPA, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The hearing, which focused on the federal government’s perspective on ECPA reform, followed up on a hearing held last September and Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-VT) January 2011 pledge that “[t]he Judiciary Committee will continue the work…