The Latest Developments in Global Data Privacy Law, and Data Breach Prevention and Response
Officials from both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and European Union (EU) recently called for enhancements to the Obama administration’s proposed Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.
The White House’s…
Continue Reading FTC and EU Are Critical of the White House’s Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights
On December 31, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it approved a final order settling charges against Snapchat.
In its complaint, the FTC charged Snapchat with deceiving consumers over…
Continue Reading FTC Approves Settlement Order With Snapchat
The FTCannounced yesterday a settlement with Epic Marketplace, an online advertising network, which prohibits Epic from further collection of data obtained by “browser sniffing” the surfing history of Internet users and requires Epic to destroy all previously collected data. The FTC did NOT ban “browser sniffing.”…
Continue Reading FTC “History Sniffing” Settlement Meaningless or the Start of Something Bigger
Earlier this week the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that accessing another person’s online (personal) email is not a violation of the federal Stored Communications Act. This holding is in direct opposition to what the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held in 2004.
Continue Reading Hacking and Reading Someone’s Online Email Just Got Easier in South Carolina
Much ado has been made in recent weeks about the FTC’s Do Not Track proposal, the push from Congress to protect consumers, and the response from Google, Microsoft and Mozilla…
Continue Reading Online Privacy in the Open – Who Cares About the Faux Fight?
Last week, the federal government fined Cignet Health (Maryland) $43 million for violating the privacy rights of 41 patients by denying them access to their medical records. The fine levied…
An appeals court in California has ruled in Hypertouch v. Valueclick that the California anti-spam law is not preempted by the CAN-SPAM Act. The ruling overturned the District Court ruling and is contrary to positions taken in other courts.
Continue Reading California Anti-Spam Law Not Preempted by CAN-SPAM Act
XY.com was a magazine that catered to gay teens, a category of users that sought privacy for personal, familial and safety reasons. The founder of the magazine, Peter Ian Cummings, shuttered the magazine in 2007, the web site in 2009, and the information collected has (presumably) sat dormant since then.
In February of this year, Cummings filed for personal bankruptcy protection. Although Mr. Cummings had little in the way of assets, he did list the editorial content and users’ personal information as a personal asset. Now, creditors of Mr. Cummings want the users’ personal information sold and the proceeds distributed to creditors. Can that happen if XY.com’s privacy policy says nothing about bankruptcy but does say “[w]e never give your info to anybody”?
Continue Reading Potential Bankruptcy Sale of Personal Information From Gay Teen Magazine Has Privacy Implications – FTC Objects
The Supreme Court issued a ruling yesterday (8-1) in Ontario, Calif. v. Quon, U.S., No. 08-1332, 6/17/10, basically punting on elaborating on Fourth Amendment privacy rights because technology is still emerging.
Continue Reading Supreme Court Refuses to Make Landmark Privacy Ruling
Marina Stengart, a former employee of northern New Jersey-based Loving Care Agency, sued Loving Care for wrongful termination of employment based on discrimination. Loving Care hired an outside firm to analyze Stengart’s computer for information helpful to defense of the lawsuit. The third party investigators accessed Stengart’s Yahoo! email account (presumably because of a saved password), where they found information helpful to defense of the lawsuit. Can Loving Care’s attorneys use the information found on that personal email account? What if the communications are between Stengart and her attorney?
Continue Reading NJ Supreme Court Protects Employee Personal Emails Accessed on Work Computer
