Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On October 1, 2021, Florida’s Protecting DNA Privacy Act (the “Act”), took effect. The Act, signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis on June 29, restricts certain willful collection, retention, analysis and disclosure of the DNA samples or DNA analysis results of persons in Florida without their express consent.

On October 6, 2021, the Centre for Information Policy Leadership (“CIPL”) at Hunton Andrews Kurth published a white paper on “Organizational Accountability in Data Protection Enforcement – How Regulators Consider Accountability in their Enforcement Decisions” (the “Paper”).

On September 14, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that analytics firm, App Annie Inc., and its co-founder and former CEO and Chairman Bertrand Schmitt, agreed to pay approximately $10 million to settle securities fraud charges for engaging in deceptive practices and making material misrepresentations about “alternative data” sold by the company. Notably, this is the SEC’s first enforcement action charging an alternative data provider with securities fraud.

On September 28, 2021, Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Rob Portman (R-OH), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, respectively, introduced a bipartisan bill (the “Bill”) that would require owners and operators of critical infrastructure to notify the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) within 72 hours of having a reasonable belief that a covered cyber incident has occurred. Additionally, the Bill would require most entities (including businesses with 50 or more employees) that make ransom payments following ransomware attacks to report those payments to the CISA within 24 hours of payment. Notably, any entity required to submit a ransom payment report would first be required to conduct a due diligence review of alternatives to paying ransom, including an analysis of whether recovery from the ransomware attack is possible through other means, before making such a ransom payment. Critical infrastructure owners and operators also would be required to provide supplemental reports to the CISA in light of new or different information becoming available. All entities subject to these requirements would face data preservation obligations.

On October 4, 2021, the California Privacy Protection Agency (“CPPA”) appointed Ashkan Soltani as its first Executive Director. Soltani, a former chief technologist for the Federal Trade Commission and senior advisor to the White House, began his new role on Monday. He also is a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy and the Georgetown Center on Privacy and Technology.

On September 30, 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued guidance regarding when the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule applies to disclosures and requests for information about a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status.

On September 29 and 30, 2021, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation convened hearings on how to better protect consumer and children’s privacy.

On September 27, 2021, the transition period allowing companies to continue using the old EU Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) for new transfers from the EU to a third country ended. Companies entering into new transfer agreements incorporating the SCCs must now use those published by the European Commission on June 4, 2021 (the “new SCCs”). Transfers from the UK that rely on SCCs must continue to use the old SCCs.

On September 22, 2021, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo released a joint statement on the Department of Homeland Security’s (“DHS’s”) issuance of preliminary Critical Infrastructure Control Systems Cybersecurity Performance Goals and Objectives (the “Preliminary Goals”). As we previously reported, on July 28, 2021, the Biden Administration signed a National Security Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems (the “Memo”), which instructed DHS to lead the development of cybersecurity performance goals for critical infrastructure firms. The Memo described the initiative as “a voluntary, collaborative effort between the Federal Government and the critical infrastructure community to significantly improve the cybersecurity of these critical systems.”

On September 27, 2021, the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) announced that it had adopted an opinion on the European Commission’s draft adequacy decision for the Republic of Korea (the “Opinion”).