On August 24, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a $1.2 million settlement with Sephora over allegations that the cosmetic retailer had violated the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This first public enforcement action—and subsequent noncompliance letters the Attorney General sent to other retailers—clearly highlight the continued focus of regulators on online tracking practices and opt-out signals such
With a little over a year of enforcing the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) under its belt, the Office of the California Attorney General (OAG) recently held a press conference to announce updates on its CCPA enforcement efforts and promote new tools relating to California consumers’ right to opt out of the sale of their personal information.
Continue Reading California Enforcement Updates and Privacy Tools Highlight Regulatory Scrutiny of Right to Opt Out
The Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) announced that it has entered into a settlement with a business associate that provides electronic medical records services to health care providers. The resolution agreement requires Medical Informatics Engineering, Inc. (MIE) to pay $100,000 and adhere to a corrective action plan.
Utah Governor Gary Herbert is expected to sign a new privacy law in the coming weeks that will make his state the first to protect private electronic data stored with third-party providers from government access without a warrant.
Under the legislation passed unanimously by the Utah Legislature earlier this month, law enforcement agencies need a warrant to obtain information about an individual from wireless communications providers, email platforms, search engine providers, or social media companies.
While much of the focus over the past two years has been on laws to protect consumer privacy rights, protecting private information from disclosure to law enforcement has also generated attention. Traditionally, the general rule followed, on both the federal and state levels, has been that law enforcement agencies can access information through third-party providers because individuals have no reasonable expectation of privacy when they share their personal information with third parties.
Continue Reading Utah Privacy Law Would Be First to Require Search Warrant for Government to Access Stored Data
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has joined the government chorus in sounding the alarm about the rapid rise in “business email compromises” that are victimizing organizations across industry sectors.
On October 16, 2018, the SEC released a “Report of Investigation” calling for public companies to reassess their internal accounting controls “in light of emerging risks, including risks arising from cyber-related frauds.” In particular, the report focuses on certain types of “business email compromises” (BEC), in which a bad actor uses spoofed or compromised email accounts to trick an organization’s personnel into effectuating wire transfers to financial accounts controlled by fraudsters.
Continue Reading SEC Special Report: Rampant Business Email Compromises Require Reassessment of Internal Accounting Controls
The Departmental Appeals Board of the Department of Health and Human Services (“Board”) has granted summary judgment against the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (“Center”) and upheld the imposition of $4.3 million dollars in penalties against the Center for violations of HIPAA’s privacy and security rules. In this case, the personal medical data of more than 33,000 individuals was exposed through the theft of a laptop and the loss of unencrypted thumb drives. None of these devices was encrypted, and the laptop was not password protected.
Continue Reading Appeals Board Upholds $4.3 Million in HIPAA Penalties Against Hospital
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has made another foray into data security, announcing today an order settling charges against AMP Global Clearing LLC (AMP) stemming from AMP’s failure to supervise the implementation of its information systems security program. Between June 21, 2016 and April 17, 2017, AMP stored thousands of customer records in an improperly protected internal network. This fact was discovered after an unknown third-party, with no affiliation to AMP, accessed AMP’s network and copied 97,000 files containing personally identifiable information. The third party then contacted federal authorities, and later AMP. Although AMP cooperated with the CFTC and worked to fix the issue, the CFTC later brought charges against the company for failing to supervise the implementation of critical provisions of AMP’s information systems security program.
Continue Reading CFTC Settles Charges Against AMP Global Clearing for Failing to Supervise Implementation of its Security Program
Lyft recently confirmed that it is investigating whether its employees were accessing its customer database without appropriate authorization to obtain personal information, including rides taken by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The investigation was announced less than six months after Uber entered into a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consent order to resolve allegations of similar behavior by its own employees.
The investigation demonstrates the importance of revisiting internal compliance measures in the wake of legal developments that may be relevant to a particular company or industry. Companies need to maintain comprehensive privacy programs to ensure the confidentiality of the personal information that they collect. Such programs should include, at a minimum:
Continue Reading Lyft Employees Demonstrate Need for Privacy Compliance Management
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced its first settlement of a HIPAA breach in 2018. The settlement arose from five separate breaches by five different entities owned by Fresenius Medical Care, a large provider of kidney dialysis and other medical services. The breaches involved stolen computers, a stolen USB drive, and a missing hard drive, all occurring within a five-month span in 2012.
Continue Reading OCR Announces HIPAA Settlement For Data Security Breaches
With the New Year comes new data breach compliance obligations! Two Mid-Atlantic states have cybersecurity related compliance statutes that have – or will soon – take effect. Are you ready?
New Year’s Day ushered into effect the amended Maryland Personal Information Protection Act, which expands the definition of “personal information,” creates a 45-day deadline for providing notice of a breach, allows for substitute service when the breach enables an individual’s e-mail to be accessed, and increases the class of information subject to Maryland’s destruction of records laws. To the customary litany of data elements comprising “personal information,” Maryland has added personal health and health insurance information, biometric data, online account credentials and passport/government ID numbers. The amended data destruction provision now applies to customer and employee/former employee records containing personal information. See our prior alert detailing the amendments here.
Continue Reading New 2018 Data Breach Compliance Obligations Begin Going into Effect