In March 2018, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a Notice of Public Hearing and Request for Written comments on The Internet of Things on Consumer Product Hazards. The CPSC expressed interest regarding existing safety standards on existing IoT devices, how to prevent hazards, and the role of government in the effort to promote IoT safety.
$4 Million Judgment Awarded to Office for Civil Rights for HIPAA Violation
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) has ruled that the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) in its failure to encrypt its electronic devices and ordered MD Anderson to pay $4,348,000 in civil monetary penalties to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). This is the second summary judgment ordered in favor of the OCR in its history, and the fourth largest amount recovered by OCR for HIPAA violations.
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FTC Gives Final Approval to PayPal Settlement Related to Allegations Involving its Venmo Payment Service
The FTC gave final approval to the Venmo/PayPal settlement resolving alleged violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act’s Privacy and Safeguards Rules. As described in a previous blog post, the FTC alleged that Venmo made a variety of misrepresentations to consumers with respect to the availability of funds, the ability of consumers to control the privacy of their transactions, and its data security practices. Continue reading “FTC Gives Final Approval to PayPal Settlement Related to Allegations Involving its Venmo Payment Service”
Stay In Touch! Email Marketing After the GDPR
Part I: Untangling the GDPR and the e-Privacy Directive
This is the first post in a four part series on GDPR and email marketing.
Your email in-box has probably finally recovered from the wave of GDPR opt-in requests and notices that peaked around May 25th. But, if you’ve followed the privacy press or the statements from EU regulators, you’re probably left wondering what it was all for. Many statements made in news stories (both in the U.S. and the EU) and by commentators have claimed that the GDPR means no one can send marketing emails any more without your permission. But, other stories suggest that the opt-in emails and privacy notices were unnecessary or, even, inappropriate. Who’s right? And what email marketing is allowed now?
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Eleventh Circuit Vacates FTC LabMD Order but Does Not Challenge FTC Authority
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit vacated the LabMD Federal Trade Commission order but did not challenge the Commission’s ability to use its unfairness authority to challenge inadequate data security practices in a closely watched case that tested the commission’s enforcement powers.
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Vermont First State to Pass Data Broker Law
Vermont lawmakers recently passed a first-of-its-kind data broker law, which protects consumers from credit freeze fees, data fraud and clarifies data security requirements.
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