At the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas last week, a security researcher presented his research on using access rights available under the GDPR for identity theft purposes (slides available here; whitepaper available here).  Specifically, the researcher “attempted to steal as much information as possible” about his fiancé by submitting GDPR access requests in her name to more than 150 companies based in the U.S. and UK.  The researcher reported that 24 percent of the companies surveyed ultimately provided personal information in response to the bogus requests.

While the researcher’s study focused on the GDPR, the results are indicative of concerns applicable more broadly to other privacy laws that grant access rights to individuals, including the forthcoming California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) in California.  This could be particularly problematic in a CCPA context given that the statute defines personal information to include information associated with a consumer’s “household.”

The whitepaper associated with the researcher’s study suggests a number of potential steps that various stakeholders could take to remediate the risk of unauthorized disclosure of personal information in response to access requests.  For instance, the whitepaper suggests that legislators and regulators could reduce these risks by “assuring businesses that rejecting a suspicious right of access request in good faith will not later result in prosecution if it turns out that the request originated from a legitimate but suspiciously-behaving data subject.”

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Photo of Lindsey Tonsager Lindsey Tonsager

Lindsey Tonsager co-chairs the firm’s global Data Privacy and Cybersecurity practice. She advises clients in their strategic and proactive engagement with the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Congress, the California Privacy Protection Agency, and state attorneys general on proposed changes to data protection…

Lindsey Tonsager co-chairs the firm’s global Data Privacy and Cybersecurity practice. She advises clients in their strategic and proactive engagement with the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Congress, the California Privacy Protection Agency, and state attorneys general on proposed changes to data protection laws, and regularly represents clients in responding to investigations and enforcement actions involving their privacy and information security practices.

Lindsey’s practice focuses on helping clients launch new products and services that implicate the laws governing the use of artificial intelligence, data processing for connected devices, biometrics, online advertising, endorsements and testimonials in advertising and social media, the collection of personal information from children and students online, e-mail marketing, disclosures of video viewing information, and new technologies.

Lindsey also assesses privacy and data security risks in complex corporate transactions where personal data is a critical asset or data processing risks are otherwise material. In light of a dynamic regulatory environment where new state, federal, and international data protection laws are always on the horizon and enforcement priorities are shifting, she focuses on designing risk-based, global privacy programs for clients that can keep pace with evolving legal requirements and efficiently leverage the clients’ existing privacy policies and practices. She conducts data protection assessments to benchmark against legal requirements and industry trends and proposes practical risk mitigation measures.