Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On September 6, 2013, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding traveled to Berlin where she commented on the status of the negotiations on the proposed EU General Data Protection Regulation (the “Proposed Regulation”). Commissioner Reding indicated that she was looking for Germany to become involved in the discussions about the Proposed Regulation at the highest level, and she argued in favor of stricter regulations given recent revelations about surveillance programs such as PRISM. Because the vote on the Proposed Regulation only requires a majority to pass, she also emphasized that it would not be necessary to obtain the agreement of all of the EU Member States (for example, the UK or Ireland).

Hunton & Williams LLP is pleased to announce that several privacy lawyers were named to the New York Metro Super Lawyers list for 2013. For the eighth consecutive year, Lisa J. Sotto, partner and head of the Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice at Hunton & Williams LLP, was selected as a New York Super Lawyer. She also was featured in the latest edition of New York Super Lawyers Magazine in an article entitled “The Queen of Breach: Privacy Expert Lisa Sotto Goes Public.” In addition, partner Aaron P. Simpson was included as a Rising Star for the third year in a row, and associate ...

This week, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), in conjunction with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, released model Notices of Privacy Practices. The notices, which have been developed for use by health care providers and health plans, come in different formats:

• an 8-page booklet;
• a 5-page layered notice that summarizes key details on the first page and includes the full content of the booklet on the remaining four pages;
• a 5-page condensed version of the 8-page booklet; and
• a 6-page text-only version of the booklet.

On September 19, 2013, Hunton & Williams’ Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice group hosted the first webcast in its new Hunton Global Privacy Update series. The program focused on the latest updates regarding the EU General Data Protection Regulation, recent Safe Harbor issues from both European and American perspectives, and cybersecurity developments on both sides of the Atlantic.

Hunton Global Privacy Update sessions are 30-minutes in length and are scheduled to take place every two months.

On September 9, 2013, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) published its revised guidelines governing the protection of privacy and transborder flows of personal data (the “Revised Guidelines”), updating the OECD’s original guidelines from 1980 that became the first set of accepted international privacy principles.

On August 30, 2013, following the effort by the People’s Republic of China to establish a Consumer Rights Protection Bureau in 2012, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (the “CBRC”) issued a document entitled “Guidance for the Banking Sector on the Protection of the Rights of Consumers” (the “Guidance”). Among other things, the Guidance re-emphasizes the principle of protecting personal financial information. Banking institutions are required (1) to take effective measures to protect consumers’ personal financial information; (2) not to modify or illegally use consumers’ personal financial information; and (3) to prevent the disclosure of consumers’ personal financial information to any third party without the relevant consumers’ authorization or consent.

As reported in the Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives Blog:

The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey recently ruled that non-public Facebook wall posts are protected under the Federal Stored Communications Act (the “SCA”) in Ehling v. Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp., No. 2:11-CV-3305 (WMJ) (D.N.J. Aug. 20, 2013). The plaintiff was a registered nurse and paramedic at Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp. (“MONOC”). She maintained a personal Facebook profile and was “Facebook friends” with many of her coworkers but none of the MONOC managers. She adjusted her privacy preferences so only her “Facebook friends” could view the messages she posted onto her Facebook wall. Unbeknownst to the plaintiff, a coworker who was also a “Facebook friend” took screenshots of the plaintiff’s wall posts and sent them to a MONOC manager. When the manager learned of a wall post in which the plaintiff criticized Washington, D.C. paramedics in their response to a museum shooting, MONOC temporarily suspended the plaintiff with pay and delivered a memo warning her that the wall post reflected a “deliberate disregard for patient safety.” The plaintiff subsequently filed suit alleging violations of the SCA, among other claims.

On September 9, 2013, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it is seeking public comment on another proposed mechanism (submitted by Imperium, LLC) to obtain verifiable parental consent in accordance with the new Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (the “COPPA Rule”) that came into effect July 1, 2013. This announcement follows on the heels of a similar recent announcement that the Commission is seeking public comment on a parental consent mechanism proposed by a different company.

On September 5, 2013, the 16 German state data protection authorities and the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (the “DPAs”) passed a resolution concerning recent revelations about the PRISM, Tempora and XKeyscore surveillance programs.

On September 10, 2013, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) published guidance for companies receiving unwanted marketing (the “Guidance”). This Guidance was published as part of a broader focus on unwanted marketing in the UK.