Over the past month, a number of White House officials and key House and Senate members have discussed the importance of moving cybersecurity legislation forward. Highlights include the following:
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Last week, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg dismissed a putative class action against Facebook alleging that the company violated users’ rights of publicity by using their names and pictures for its Friend Finder service. The Judge concluded that the class failed to demonstrate that they suffered any injury as a result of the service. The Judge…
Following a public comment period that began in March of this year, the Federal Trade Commission has accepted as final a settlement with Google relating to the social network “Buzz” product that was launched in 2010. (For more details about the Buzz product and its launch see Inside Privacy’s prior post, here). As the…
Reversing the decision of the lower court, the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals recently held in Anderson v. Hannaford Bros. Co. that under Maine law, claims for breach of contract and negligence can be premised on the cost of replacing credit/debit cards whose numbers had been breached and the cost of credit insurance where…
Last month, as we previously reported, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it will host a December workshop to explore potential privacy and security implications raised by the increasing use of facial recognition technology. Yesterday, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee sent a letter to the FTC…
Recently, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), a non-profit profit organization representing participants in the mobile marketing industry, released a privacy policy framework for mobile applications. Although framed as a model privacy policy, the MMA Privacy and Advocacy Committee makes clear that the document is intended to be a “starting point” rather than a verbatim model. …
A federal district court in Michigan recently held that the federal CAN-SPAM Act preempts Michigan’s anti-spam law. Unlike the federal law, Michigan’s statute offers individuals who receive unsolicited commercial email, or “spam,” a private cause of action. The decision, by Judge Janet T. Neff of the Western District of Michigan in Hafke v. Rossdale…
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is currently accepting comments on a proposed rule that would amend regulations under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
Under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, individuals have the right of access to their protected…
Yesterday, the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held a hearing entitled , “Understanding Consumer Attitudes About Privacy.” The hearing featured a single panel with a mix of industry representatives and consumer privacy advocates, including representatives from Intuit, Microsoft, the Digital Advertising Alliance, Evidon, and the World Privacy Forum. A primary focus…
Yesterday, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued a guidance document regarding public companies’ disclosure obligations relating to cybersecurity risks and breaches. The guidance responds to a request by Sen. Jay Rockefeller that the SEC clarify its position on this increasingly important issue.
The Division noted that as companies have turned to digital technologies to…
