The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts is the latest court to rule that virtual currencies are commodities, and subject to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) jurisdiction.
Continue reading “Another Court Rules Virtual Currencies are Commodities Subject to CFTC Oversight”
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued an Enforcement Notice against a Canadian data analytics firm, AggregateIQ (AIQ) that allegedly produced targeted advertisements for pro-Brexit campaigns. This action is the first enforcement Notice issued under the GDPR.
Continue reading “First Notice Filed Under GDPR against Canadian Analytics Firm”
UMass Memorial Medical Center, Inc., and UMass Memorial Medical Group, Inc. (collectively, UMass) has agreed to pay $230,000 to settle claims alleging that that they violated the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and various other state patient privacy laws.
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued a Notice seeking comments on a proposed federal consumer data privacy approach. In a parallel effort, the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology is developing a voluntary privacy framework to help organizations manage risk.
Continue reading “NTIA Seeks Comment on Federal Consumer Data Privacy Approach”
The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing “Examining Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy” on September 26, which included testimony from tech industry executives.
Senator John Thune’s opening statement noted that with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have put the issue of consumer data privacy squarely on the Congress’s doorstep. “The question is no longer whether we need a federal law to protect consumers’ privacy,” he said. “The question is what shape that law should take.”
Continue reading “The Devil is in the Definitions for Federal Consumer Data Privacy Safeguards”
The Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced three separate settlements with Boston Medical Center (BMC), Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), respectively, over potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule totaling $999,000. According to the settlements, the potential violations were the result of the alleged disclosure of patient protected health information (PHI) to ABC News employees during the production and filming of the docuseries called “Save My Life: Boston Trauma,” at each hospital.
