Given that there are several sets of pending privacy legislation, here is a comparison for easy reference. Side-by-Side Comparison of Privacy Bills
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Subscribe to Uncategorized RSS FeedNo Violation of Electronic Communications Privacy Act by Facebook
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Stu Eaton The United States District Court for the Northern District of California has dismissed the claims of the plaintiffs against Facebook in the case of In re: Facebook Privacy Litigation. Plaintiffs’ claims were based on Facebook’s admitted disclosure of their personal information to is advertisers in its “Referrer Headers,” which are created when… Continue Reading
Privacy and Security Bits and Bytes
Posted in UncategorizedOur Friday feature is back! FTC Imposes Largest Civil Penalty Ever for Violation of Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) – Magic Kingdom Subsidiary Pays Up The Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Jon Leibowitz, said: It’s the law, it’s the right thing to do, and, as today’s settlement demonstrates, violating COPPA will not come… Continue Reading
Still More Sony PlayStation Data Breach Class Actions Reported, But Payouts Remain Doubtful
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Kevin McGinty Reuters reports that there are now at least 25 separate class actions pending against Sony in connection with the theft of PlayStation Network (“PSN”) customer data. Reuters further reports, however, that the PSN class actions appear to have a doubtful likelihood of success because, as noted in a previous entry in this… Continue Reading
“Do-Not-Track” Bill Introduced in US Senate
Posted in UncategorizedWe now have proposed “do-not-track” legislation in both the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate. Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) introduced the Do Not Track Me Online Act in February, and yesterday, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced the “Do-Not-Track Online Act 0f 2011″. Senator Rockefeller is the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Senator Rockefeller’s… Continue Reading
And the [hacks] just keep on coming……
Posted in UncategorizedWe’ve had the Epsilon breach. We’ve had Sony Breach One and Sony Breach Two. Today, Bloomberg News reports on a breach that may be, as one security expert in the article calls it, “the nastiest password hack in history….” LastPass is reporting that hackers may have broken into its database and stolen info on as… Continue Reading
More breach problems for Sony……
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Julia Siripurapu Yesterday, in a Customer Service Notification posted on its website, Sony Online Entertainment LLC (“SOE”) based in San Diego, California revealed that its systems were also the subject of a hacking attack. Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment announced in a press release issued this morning, that based on their ongoing… Continue Reading
Strike Three? Apple/Google, Sony — now the New York Yankees…
Posted in UncategorizedThis has been quite the stretch for large, embarrassing data breaches (or “incidents” — depending on which spin you take). Now, the New York Yankees have been caught in the middle. An employee accidentally attached a spreadsheet to an email that was being sent out to thousands of current clients. That spreadsheet contained the names,… Continue Reading
And a Sony PSN Update: Report Says Credit Cards Encrypted
Posted in UncategorizedUpdate on the breach that exposed the information on 77 million users of Sony’s PlayStation Network: Kevin Poulsen, a writer for Wired Magazine‘s excellent blog, Threat Level, reports that Sony says that credit card numbers potentially stolen in the breach were encrypted. Poulsen quotes Sony, writing: All of the data was protected, and access was restricted… Continue Reading
Apple: Update on Lawmaker Interest in Mobile Device Tracking
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Julie Babayan An update of our continuing posts (here and here) on the grilling that Apple and Google are getting over collection of location information by mobile devices: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has added his voice to those of other lawmakers like Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) who are concerned over reports… Continue Reading
UPDATE: Sony PlayStation Network Breach Prompts Plan to Introduce Consumer Protection Legislation
Posted in UncategorizedThere are many articles (see links below) being written and blogged today regarding the PSN breach. The Hill reports this afternoon that Representative Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) has announced a plan to introduce legislation to protect online consumer information. Bono Mack, as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Trade Subcommittee, said that they will be investigating… Continue Reading
TJX Data Breach May Take Back Seat to Sony PlayStation Network Breach
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Julia Siripurapu Sony Corp. has acknowledged on its PlayStation website that between April 17 and April 19, its PlayStation and Qriocity networks were the subject of a hacking attack. As a result of this attack, the personal information, including name, address, email address, birth date, passwords, security question answers, and credit card data, of… Continue Reading
How Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) Will Use and Disclose Protected Health Information While Complying with HIPAA
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Dianne Bourque The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released proposed regulations establishing Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and creating the Medicare Shared Savings Program (the Program). The Program will permit health care providers and suppliers to form ACOs and to reward those that lower health care costs for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries,… Continue Reading
Update on Apple Location-Gathering Kerfuffle
Posted in UncategorizedApple has published a Q&A document to educate consumers on the back story relating to collection of location data. Wired has just published an excellent summary of the Apple Q&A and the issues.
U.S. Supreme Court Hears Prescription Data Mining Law Arguments
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Dianne Bourque On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court heard arguments (transcripts here) about whether or not the Vermont data mining law violates free speech by preventing pharmaceutical manufacturers and their sales people from obtaining data on physician prescription habits. Vermont currently bans the sale, transmission, and use of prescriber-specific data for marketing purposes… Continue Reading
Lawmakers Scrutinize Mobile Phone Location Tracking Practices
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Julie Babayan Lawmakers including Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy Chairman Al Franken (D-MN) and House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus Co-Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) are scrutinizing Apple Inc.’s and Google Inc.’s practices of tracking users’ location information through their mobile phones. Franken will preside over a hearing next month entitled “Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones,… Continue Reading
Data Privacy and Security for the Not-for-Profits
Posted in UncategorizedWe’re conducting a webinar on May 4th on data privacy and security issues as they affect not-for-profit institutions. Registration is here.
Update: Representative Cliff Stearns (R-FL) gets into the privacy legislation act
Posted in UncategorizedTech Daily Dose reports on the House of Representatives’ entry into the federal privacy legislation act. The Consumer Privacy Protection Act of 2011 specifically would: • Require covered entities to notify consumers that their personally identifiable information as defined in the bill may be used for a purpose unrelated to the transaction. • Require entities to… Continue Reading
Kerry and McCain Introduce Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights
Posted in UncategorizedAs we have been saying since the beginning of the new session of Congress, it appears that privacy is the true bipartisan issue. Evidence of that was front and center yesterday as Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ) introduced their “Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights” requiring businesses that collect, use, store or transfer… Continue Reading
Epsilon Data Breach Update – House Lawmakers Want Information
Posted in UncategorizedThis article from today’s Tech Daily indicates that the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade want more details from Epsilon by next week.
Update on Epsilon Breach
Posted in UncategorizedThis story continues to grow. Our friends at Threatpost have done a great job of compiling a list of known companies that have been victims of the breach. See Threatpost – List of Companies Hit by Epsilon Breach
Major e-mail data breach occurs at mega-marketer
Posted in UncategorizedBy now, you’ve probably received one or more emails like this: Dear Valued Best Buy Customer, On March 31, we were informed by Epsilon, a company we use to send emails to our customers, that files containing the email addresses of some Best Buy customers were accessed without authorization. We have been assured by Epsilon… Continue Reading
And an aside…as if the people of the Gulf Coast haven’t suffered enough…
Posted in UncategorizedThe Associated Press reports that BP has lost a laptop containing all of the personal information belonging to tens of thousands of residents who filed claims for compensation after the Gulf oil spill. According to a BP spokesperson, the laptop was password protected, but not encrypted. Of course.
HIPAA Enforcement on the Rise: Do You Know Who Your Business Associates Are??
Posted in UncategorizedWritten by Stephen Bentfield In the two-plus years since the enactment of the HITECH Act, the health care industry has seen a dramatic shift in federal and state HIPAA enforcement posture. Just within the last month, HHS announced a $4.3 million civil fine imposed on Cignet Health for failing to provide patients with copies of… Continue Reading
