Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On December 28, 2016, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) announced an updated version of its cybersecurity regulation for financial institutions (the “Updated Regulation”). The Updated Regulation will become effective on March 1, 2017.

On December 27, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced charges against three Chinese traders who allegedly made almost $3 million in illegal profits by fraudulently trading on nonpublic information that had been hacked from two New York-based law firms. This is the first action in which the SEC has brought charges in connection with an incident involving hacking into a law firm’s computer network.

On December 21, 2016, the Centre for Information Policy Leadership (“CIPL”) at Hunton & Williams LLP issued a white paper on Risk, High Risk, Risk Assessments and Data Protection Impact Assessments under the GDPR (the “White Paper”). The White Paper sets forth guidance and recommendations concerning the interpretation and implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation’s (“GDPR's”) provisions relating to risk and risk assessment, which will become applicable on May 25, 2018. While risk assessments already are required under the EU Data Protection Directive, the GDPR broadens the relevance of risk and risk assessment by explicitly and comprehensively incorporating a risk-based approach to data protection.

On December 20, 2016, the FTC announced that it has agreed to settle charges that Turn Inc. (“Turn”), a company that enables commercial brands and ad agencies to target digital advertising to consumers, tracked consumers online even after consumers took steps to opt out of tracking.

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China published a draft of the new Notice on Regulating Business Behaviors in the Cloud Service Market (Draft for Public Comments) (the “Draft”) for public comment. The Draft is open for comment until December 24, 2016.

On December 21, 2016, a judgment by the Court of Justice for the European Union (the “CJEU”) that clarifies EU surveillance laws has called into question the legality of the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act 2016. The decision in Case C-698/15 could have significant implications on the UK’s chances of securing “adequacy” status for its data protection regime post-Brexit.

On December 15, 2016, the Article 29 Working Party (“Working Party”) issued a press release announcing its December 13, 2016, adoption and release of three sets of guidelines and FAQs on key implementation issues under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”):

On December 14, 2016, the FTC announced that the operating companies of the AshleyMadison.com website (collectively, the “Operators”) have settled with the FTC and a coalition of state regulators over charges that the Operators deceived consumers and failed to protect users’ personal information. The FTC worked with a coalition of 13 states, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to resolve this matter, which was initiated in the wake of the website’s July 2015 data breach.

The Privacy team at Hunton & Williams has authored several chapters of the recently published 2017 guide to data protection and privacy for Getting the Deal Through. The publication covers data privacy and data protection laws in 26 jurisdictions across the globe. Wim Nauwelaerts, Privacy team partner in the firm’s Brussels office, served as the contributing editor of the guide and co-authored the Belgium chapter and the EU overview.

On December 12, 2016, Politico reported that the European Commission intends to replace the e-Privacy Directive with a Regulation. The planned shift from a Directive to a Regulation has important legal consequences under EU law, as it means that instead of creating a floor upon which EU Member States may base the creation of their own versions of the law, a Regulation will create a harmonized set of requirements at the EU level that are directly applicable in the Member States.