United States

On July 10, 2023, the European Commission adopted its adequacy decision on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (“DPF”). The decision, which took effect on the day of its adoption, concludes that the United States ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the EEA to companies certified to the DPF. This blog post summarizes the key findings of the decision, what organizations wishing to certify to the DPF need to do and the process for certifying, as well as the impact on other transfer mechanisms such as the standard contractual clauses (“SCCs”), and on transfers from the UK and Switzerland.…

Continue Reading European Commission Adopts Adequacy Decision on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework

On June 22, 2023, the Oregon state legislature passed the Oregon Consumer Privacy Act, S.B. 619 (the “Act”).  This bill resembles the comprehensive privacy statutes in Colorado, Montana, and Connecticut, though there are some notable distinctions.  If passed, Oregon will be the twelfth state to implement a comprehensive privacy statute, joining California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut…

On 31 May 2023, at the close of the fourth meeting of the US-EU Trade & Tech Council (“TTC”), Margrethe Vestager – the European Union’s Executive Vice President, responsible for competition and digital strategy – announced that the EU and US are working together to develop a voluntary AI Code of Conduct in advance of formal regulation taking effect. The goal, according to Vestager, is to develop non-binding international standards on risk audits, transparency and other requirements for companies developing AI systems. The AI Code of Conduct, once finalized, would be put before G7 leaders as a joint transatlantic proposal, and companies would be encouraged to voluntarily sign up.…

Continue Reading EU and US Lawmakers Agree to Draft AI Code of Conduct

This year has been off to a busy start with respect to children’s and minors’ privacy legislation efforts. We wanted to take a moment to recap the latest developments across the board.

The most notable trend of the year thus far has been the widespread introduction of Age Appropriate Design Codes. Ten states have thus…

On March 28, Governor Kim Reynolds signed into law SF 262, making Iowa the sixth state to enact a comprehensive consumer privacy law.  The new law will take effect on January 1, 2025.

As we discuss here, Iowa’s privacy law shares a number of key similarities to existing state privacy frameworks, including providing…

On March 16, 2023, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) approved a new Reliability Standard “adding new requirements focused on supply chain risk management for low impact bulk electric system (“BES”) Cyber Systems.” …

Continue Reading FERC Approves New Cybersecurity Requirements for Low Impact Bulk Electric Systems

On March 23, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced a notice of proposed rulemaking that would significantly revise the legal framework governing automatically renewing subscriptions.  The proposal would amend the FTC’s existing Negative Option Rule to provide specific disclosure, consent, and cancellation requirements applicable to all negative options in all media.  The Rule would formalize many of the guidelines from the FTC’s October 2021 Enforcement Policy Statement Regarding Negative Option Marketing (“Policy Statement”) and incorporate new requirements not previously addressed at the federal level such as renewal reminders.  …

Continue Reading FTC Proposes to Rewrite Negative Option Rule with Expansive Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

In February, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published a blog post that elucidated key security principles from recent FTC data security and privacy orders.  Specifically, the FTC highlighted three practices that the Commission regards as “effectively protect[ing] user data.”  These practices include: (1) offering multi-factor authentication (“MFA”) for consumers and requiring it for employees; (2) requiring that connections within a company’s system be both encrypted and authenticated (e.g., deploying a “zero trust” methodology); and (3) requiring companies to develop data retention schedules.  The FTC noted that while these measures “are not the sum-total of everything the FTC expects from an effective security program, they are a sample of provisions [that the FTC has] seen recently that speak directly to the idea of attacking things at their root cause to produce uniquely effective results.”…

Continue Reading FTC Publishes Blog Post on Data Security Practices for Complex Systems

On Tuesday, February 14, 2023, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “Protecting Our Children Online.”  The witnesses included only consumer advocates, and no industry representatives.  As Committee Chair, however, Senator Durbin (D-IL) indicated that he plans to hold another hearing featuring representatives from technology companies.…

Continue Reading Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on Children’s Online Safety

On February 1, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced its first-ever enforcement action under its Health Breach Notification Rule (“HBNR”) against digital health platform GoodRx Holdings Inc. (“GoodRx”) for failing to notify consumers and others of its unauthorized disclosures of consumers’ personal health information to third-party advertisers.  According to the proposed order, GoodRx will pay a $1.5 million civil penalty and be prohibited from sharing users’ sensitive health data with third-party advertisers in order to resolve the FTC’s complaint. 

This announcement marks the first instance in which the FTC has sought enforcement under the HBNR, which was promulgated in 2009 under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (“HITECH”) Act, and comes just sixteen months after the FTC published a policy statement expanding its interpretation of who is subject to the HBNR and what triggers the HBNR’s notification requirement.  Below is a discussion of the complaint and proposed order, as well as key takeaways from the case.…

Continue Reading FTC Announces First Enforcement Action Under Health Breach Notification Rule