Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On September 8, 2016, Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issued his Opinion on the compatibility of the draft agreement between Canada and the European Union on the transfer of passenger name record data (“PNR Agreement”) with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (“EU Charter”). This is the first time that the CJEU has been called upon to issue a ruling on the compatibility of a draft international agreement with the EU Charter.

In Part 3 of Lisa J. Sotto’s discussion at Bloomberg Law’s Second Annual Big Law Business Summit, she speaks on supply and demand in the privacy and cybersecurity fields. Lisa, partner and head of Hunton & Williams LLP’s Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice group, points out that “demand very much outweighs supply.” To be a successful lawyer in this field, Lisa emphasizes the need for experience, recognizing that, “there is so much nuance, [and data privacy is] culturally based so you cannot just open a book and understand what to do.” In the next 10 years, Lisa hopes ...

On August 29, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it is seeking public comment on the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLB”) Safeguards Rule. The GLB Safeguards Rule, which became effective in 2003, requires financial institutions to develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive information security program to safeguard customer information.

On August 25, 2016, WhatsApp announced in a blog post that the popular mobile messaging platform updated its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to permit certain information sharing with Facebook. After Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014, the Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection wrote a letter to both Facebook and WhatsApp that discussed the companies’ obligations to honor privacy statements made to consumers in connection with the acquisition.

As we previously reported, Lisa J. Sotto, partner and head of Hunton & Williams LLP’s Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice group, spoke at Bloomberg Law’s Second Annual Big Law Business Summit on changes in the privacy and security legal landscape. In Part 2 of her discussion, Lisa speaks about the evolution of privacy laws over the years. The “hundreds of [privacy laws] at the federal and state level,” as well as data protection laws in countries all over the world, is a far cry from the landscape in 1999 when Lisa started the privacy practice at Hunton & Williams. To keep up ...

Last month, the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and six other administrative departments jointly published the Interim Measures for the Administration of Operation and Services of E-hailing Taxis (the “Measures”). E-hailing is an increasingly popular business in China and has already become a compelling alternative to the traditional taxi. The Measures seek to regulate this emerging industry, and will come into effect on November 1, 2016. Below is a summary of the key requirements.

The Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) recently issued updates to Circular A-130 covering the management of federal information resources. OMB revised Circular A-130 “to reflect changes in law and advances in technology, as well as to ensure consistency with Executive Orders, Presidential Directives, and other OMB policy.” The revised policies are intended to transform how privacy is addressed across the branches of the federal government.

Recently, the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Public Security, the National Development and Reform Commission and six other administrative departments jointly published the Announcement on Regulating the Administration of the Use of Resident Identity Cards (the “Announcement”). The Announcement came into effect on July 15, 2016, the date of its issuance.

The Announcement reiterates existing prohibitions against leasing, lending or assigning a resident identity card to another person, and reiterates an existing requirement that resident identity cards must not be seized or held as a security by government agencies, related entities or their staff.

Lisa J. Sotto, partner and head of Hunton & Williams LLP’s Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice group, recently spoke at Bloomberg Law’s Second Annual Big Law Business Summit. In Part 1 of the panel discussion, Lisa describes the dramatic changes in the legal landscape of privacy over the last 10 to 15 years, discussing the emergence of privacy laws such as “the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act for the financial sector, HIPAA for the health care sector and…of course, the local implementation of the European Data Protection Directive.” She then continues to note an ...

As reported in the Hunton Insurance Recovery Blog, insurance-giant American International Group (“AIG”) announced that it will be the first insurer to offer standalone primary coverage for property damage, bodily injury, business interruption and product liability that results from cyber attacks and other cyber-related risks. According to AIG, “Cyber is a peril [that] can no longer be considered a risk covered by traditional network security insurance product[s].” The new AIG product, known as CyberEdge Plus, is intended to offer broader and clearer coverage for harms that had previously raised issues with insurers over the scope of available coverage. AIG explains its new coverage as follow: