Susan Ross (US)

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Notice of employer electronic monitoring

On November 8, 2021, New York became the third state to require private employers to provide employees with notice of employer monitoring of phone, email, and internet access/usage.  New York’s new law (SB 2628) goes into effect on May 7, 2022.  New York joins Connecticut and Delaware, whose laws are already in effect.  Unfortunately for … Continue reading

Customers Can Pursue Negligence Claims Directly Against Vendor

On October 19, 2021, a federal trial court in South Carolina ruled that a group of consumers could proceed with common law negligence and gross negligence claims directly against their organizations’ vendor that had been the victim of a security breach—instead of suing the organizations of which they were customers.  In re Blackbaud, Inc. Customer … Continue reading

Over-retention of personal data

The declining cost of electronic data storage may have caused some company executives to conclude that retaining personal data forever is “cheap.”  Perhaps the CNIL’s  €1.75 million (USD $2,051,930) penalty for over-retention will lead to a different view. The matter involved one of France’s largest insurers, SGAM AG2R LA MONDIALE, which was subject to an … Continue reading

Proposed “Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act of 2021”

On August 27, 2021, the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee released a draft bill that would, among other things, establish a Cyber Incident Review Office (CIR Office) within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and require critical infrastructure owners and operators to report … Continue reading

President Biden’s Executive Order on improving the nation’s cybersecurity

On May 12, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order aimed at improving cybersecurity of the federal government, with assistance from the private sector.  The 18-page Executive Order does not set forth specific requirements, but rather sets deadlines for named agencies to develop requirements, standards, or guidelines on specific cybersecurity areas.  The Executive Order also … Continue reading

To be or not to be . . . an “autodialer”

On April 1, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the question whether the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA) definition of “autodialer” encompasses equipment that can “store” and dial telephone numbers, even if the device does not “us[e] a random or sequential number generator.” It does not. To qualify as an “automatic telephone dialing system,” a … Continue reading

New York State imposes a US$1.5 million penalty in cybersecurity breach case

On March 3, 2021, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) announced a Consent Order with a NYDFS-licensed Maine-based mortgage banker and loan servicer settling alleged violations of the NYDFS cybersecurity regulations. (In the matter of Residential Mortgage Services, Inc., March 3, 2021). The Consent Order required RMS to pay $1.5 million, and within … Continue reading

Virginia’s new Consumer Data Protection Act

On March 2, 2021, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia signed into law the Consumer Data Protection Act, which contains many elements of California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The new law goes into effect on January 1, 2023. But first, you need to determine whether the law … Continue reading

Incentivizing public utilities to enhance cybersecurity: FERC’s proposed regulation

On February 5, 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) published proposed regulations in the Federal Register that would provide federal financial incentives to utilities that voluntarily increase certain cybersecurity measures above those required by the Critical Infrastructure Protection Reliability Standards (“CIP Reliability Standards”) or by the NIST, Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity (“NIST … Continue reading

US banking regulators propose a rule for 36-hour notice of breach

On December 18, 2020, the US Department of the Treasury (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency), Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) jointly announced a 53-page proposed rule that would require banks to notify their regulators within 36 hours of a “computer-security incident” that rises to the level of a “notification incident.” … Continue reading

Just when you thought it was safe—California AG issues proposed CCPA regulation changes

The California Attorney General has just issued some proposed revisions to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) regulations and our readers may be surprised by one of the proposed changes.  You may recall that California’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL) had rejected some the proposed CCPA regulations during the summer, but accepted most of them.  … Continue reading

NYAG Proposed Settlement for Credential Stuffing Attacks with 3-Business-Day Access Request Response

On September 15, 2020, the New York Attorney General (NYAG) announced a proposed settlement with Dunkin’ Brands, relating to brute force and credential stuffing attacks against members’ online accounts (including stored value cards). Dunkin’ does not admit or deny any of the NYAG’s allegations in the complaint. (New York v. Dunkin’ Brands, No. 451787/2019 (N.Y. … Continue reading

CCPA – Health Research Bill Passes Legislature

Although the bill to amend the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to extend the so-called “B-to-B” and “employee” exceptions for one more year has garnered many headlines, the California legislature passed a second CCPA amendment (AB 713) that will be of interest to anyone involved in medical research as the new bill would ease some … Continue reading

Schrems II landmark ruling: our recommendations

On 16 July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) published its decision in the landmark case Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland Ltd, Maximilian Schrems and intervening parties, Case C-311/18 (known as the Schrems II case).  While the EU-US Privacy Shield (Privacy Shield) has been completely invalidated, the Standard Contractual Clauses … Continue reading

Cell phones, robocalls, and text messages – two pronouncements

On July 6, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld most of the federal law that prohibits “robocalls” to cell phones but struck down the exception for collection of debts owed to the federal government.  (Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, No. 19–631 (July 6, 2020) (2020 WL 3633780).)  Previously, on June 25, a Bureau … Continue reading

California AG Issues Significant Changes to Draft CCPA Regulations as of March 2020

On February 7, 2020, and again on March 11, 2020, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) issued revisions to the proposed California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) regulations, and there are some surprises in both the additions and in the deletions.  For the CCPA regulations to become effective on July 1, the final regulation text … Continue reading

NYDFS Requires COVID-19 Plans by April 9

On March 10, 2020, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) issued guidance to all of its regulated institutions engaged in virtual currency business activity, requiring them to have plans for preparedness to manage the possible operational and financial risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. NYDFS requires the plans to be submitted by Thursday, April 9, … Continue reading

State of the Union: CCPA and Beyond in 2020

On New Year’s Day, you may have received emails from numerous companies saying their privacy policies have changed, or noticed a link at the bottom of many companies’ homepages stating “Do Not Sell My Info.” These are two of the more visible requirements of the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) and companies are still in … Continue reading
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