The EU Commission published its second annual review of the functioning of the EU-US Privacy Shield, which focused on the commercial issues, human resources and data automated individual decision-making and developments in the U.S. legal framework. This report follows the same general structure as the report on the first annual EU-US Privacy Shield review that we reported on last year.
Continue reading “EU-US Privacy Shield Second Review: Improvements Shown, but More to be Done”
The California Attorney General invites interested persons to provide comments on the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) rulemaking at a series of six public forums around the state in January and February 2019. The first forum is slated for January 8 in San Francisco.
Continue reading “California AG to Hold Public Forums on CCPA”
Advanced Care Hospitalists PL (ACH) and the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OCR) entered into a $500,000 no-fault settlement and two year corrective action plan (CAP) to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
After several requests for comment, the FCC has approved its earlier proposal to create a centralized, comprehensive reassigned telephone numbers database, a resource which many have felt has been lacking. Ideally, the proposed database will be an effective tool to assist businesses in identifying numbers that have been recycled, thus helping to cut down on unwanted or mistaken phone calls received by consumers. This blog outlines the framework of the FCC’s new database, including access, administration, types of information collected, usage, and potential costs and benefits.
One of the most persistent complaints by consumers to the FCC is about receiving uninvited “robocalls.” Generally speaking, these may be phone calls or texts to wireless phones or home phones that may be telemarketing or informational calls from health providers, financial services providers, schools or retailers. The FCC is the federal agency responsible for implementation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which contains opt in consent requirements for telemarketing and some types of informational calls which are heightened if the call is made to a wireless phone. Even when consumers have provided the requisite consent to receive “robocalls” calls from businesses it is not uncommon for consumers to terminate phone service, moving to a new service provider and getting a new phone number.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a settlement with State Farm Bank, FSB for alleged violations which involved obtaining and furnishing consumer reports, which in some cases were inaccurate, to Consumer Reporting Agencies. The order finds that State Farm Bank, an Illinois federal savings association with over $10 billion in assets, violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the first U.S. Sectorial privacy law, and the Consumer Financial Protection Act in a number of ways.
Continue reading “CFPB Settles with Savings and Loan Association for Alleged Violations of the FCRA”In their first congressional testimony together as a full commission, the Federal Trade Commissioners expressed support for comprehensive federal privacy legislation before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security on November 27. While the focus of the hearing was primarily on privacy and data security, the Commission’s written testimony provided updates regarding other consumer protection and competition matters.
