Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On October 23, 2012, just two weeks after issuing a series of reports highlighting the UK Information Commissioner’s Office’s (“ICO’s”) concerns regarding data protection compliance within the public sector, the ICO has imposed a monetary penalty of £120,000 and issued an enforcement notice against Stoke-on-Trent City Council (“Stoke Council”) in relation to a serious data breach. The breach involved the transmission of sensitive personal information related to a child protection case by email in an unmarked and unprotected manner to the incorrect email address.

On October 22, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission released a report entitled “Facing Facts: Best Practices for Common Uses of Facial Recognition Technologies.” The report focuses on privacy concerns associated with facial recognition technology, which is becoming increasingly ubiquitous across a variety of commercial applications ranging from search engines to video games to password authentication.

On October 24, 2012, Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor, speaking at the 34th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners in Uruguay, called the proposed EU Data Protection Regulation an “ambitious” undertaking, designed to achieve three goals.

First, Hustinx said the regulation is intended to provide the structure for European data protection for at least the next 20 years.

Second, the draft regulation will eliminate the wide variety of requirements that has resulted from the current EU Data Protection Directive’s being transposed into national law in 27 member states.

On October 22, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed settlement agreement with Compete, Inc. (“Compete”), an online market research company that collects clickstream data from consumers to generate and sell analytical reports about consumer behavior on the Internet.

This year, the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners takes place in Punta del Este, Uruguay. On October 22, 2012, Article 29 Working Party President Jacob Kohnstamm kicked off the conference with the Public Voice session, sending a clear message that the Article 29 Working Party will resist EU data protection reform proposals involving the use of consent and legitimate business interests as legal bases for data processing.

Governance for next generation data applications increasingly will depend less on individual consent, and more on ...

In the opening session of the 34th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners, Conference Executive Committee Chair and Article 29 Working Party President Jacob Kohnstamm introduced this year’s conference. He noted that the topic of this year’s closed session will be profiling. Kohnstamm also indicated that future DPA conferences would focus on the closed session, which typically is comprised of current and former data protection authorities. Among the speakers in the 2012 closed session is Professor Fred H. Cate, Senior Policy Advisor for the Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton & Williams LLP.

On October 17, 2012, Colombia enacted a new omnibus data protection law known as Ley 1581 del 17 de octubre de 2012 por el cual se dictan disposiciones generales para la protección de datos personales. The law contains significant notice and consent requirements, special provisions for the processing of children’s data, European-style data subject rights (e.g., access and correction), special obligations applicable specifically and directly to service providers, a registration requirement and cross-border data transfer restrictions. The law also provides for the ...

On October 15, 2012, Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart and the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in Germany, Peter Schaar, signed an agreement to increase intra-authority collaboration between their organizations. The agreement covers the exchange of information between the two data protection authorities, for example by informing each other of pending complaints. Notably, the agreement also addresses coordination between the DPAs with respect to their supervision of international data processing activities.

On October 15, 2012, the Singapore Parliament passed the Personal Data Protection Act 2012. Though a law has been under discussion for quite some time, this bill was introduced before Parliament only recently, in September of this year. The new law will apply only to data processing in the private sector as data processing by public agencies (or organizations acting on behalf of public agencies) are already subject to internal government rules. Reportedly, the bill will become law in January 2013, enforceable after 18 months, in mid-2014.

On October 10, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission announced that consumer reporting agency Equifax Information Services LLC (“Equifax”) and several of its customers, including Direct Lending Source, Inc. (“Direct Lending”), have agreed to pay a combined total of nearly $1.6 million to settle FTC allegations that they violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) in connection with the sale of data regarding consumers in financial distress. According to the FTC, Equifax sold Direct Lending and its affiliates lists of individuals who met selected criteria (known as “prescreened lists”); the lists contained information such as credit scores and mortgage payment status. In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Direct Lending and its affiliates did not have a legally permissible purpose under the FCRA to obtain the prescreened lists because they had no intention to use the lists to make firm offers of credit. Instead, these entities allegedly resold the lists to third parties that used the lists for marketing purposes. The FTC alleges that Equifax had inadequate procedures to prevent this from happening and that it failed to properly investigate when it learned that Direct Lending was engaged in these activities.

Hunton & Williams LLP is pleased to announce that five attorneys of the firm’s Privacy and Data Security practice group have been named as “The International Who’s Who of Internet, E-Commerce & Data Protection Lawyers” in 2012. They include partners Lisa J. Sotto, Wim Nauwelaerts and Bridget Treacy, Senior Attorney Rosemary Jay and Associate Dr. Jörg Hladjk. Who’s Who notes that “[t]he ‘cross-disciplinary’ and ‘client-focused’ Hunton & Williams LLP performs well, with a total of five lawyers selected from its ‘sophisticated’ IT and data protection ...

On October 5, 2012, the Article 29 Working Party (the “Working Party”) issued an Opinion providing further input on the recent data protection reform discussions in the EU. The Opinion follows the Working Party’s first Opinion on the EU data protection reform proposals issued on March 23, 2012.

The absence of congressional action on cybersecurity legislation has spurred efforts by various entities to exert influence over cybersecurity policy. This client alert focuses on some of those efforts, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC’s”) creation of a new cybersecurity office, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) action on cybersecurity Critical Infrastructure Protection (“CIP”) standards, continuing legislative developments concerning cybersecurity and anticipated White House executive orders on cybersecurity.

On October 4, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission announced that Artist Arena LLC (“Artist Arena”), an operator of fan websites for several popular recording artists, agreed to settle charges that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and the FTC’s COPPA Rule (“the Rule”) by improperly collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 without first obtaining verifiable parental consent. The settlement will impose a $1 million penalty on Artist Arena, bar future violations of the Rule and require deletion of the information collected in violation of the Rule.

As reported in the Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives Blog:

Employees use social media extensively in communication for personal and business reasons. Employers are increasingly monitoring this use, and insisting on access to some of the more popular sites. California took notice of this trend and passed legislation to protect employee privacy. On September 27, 2012, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed AB 1844 making California the third state to limit access to employees’ social media account, joining Maryland and Illinois.

On September 22, 2012, the Peruvian Ministry of Justice and Human Rights issued a draft regulation to implement Peru’s new Personal Data Protection Law. The comment period expires on October 5, 2012; however, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration has requested an extension to allow additional time for comments. The Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton & Williams LLP is considering high-level comments on the draft regulation. It is thought that Peru may intend to issue the final regulation prior to the 34th International ...

On September 27, 2012, the German Federal Network Agency, the Bundesnetzagentur (or “BNetzA”), together with the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection, published a guide on traffic data retention. The guide, which is aimed at telecom providers, includes a comprehensive chart that clarifies data retention periods for different types of services, such as telephone, SMS, Internet and email, and their respective types of traffic data (e.g., mobile identification numbers, IP addresses and International Mobile Equipment Identity data) based on the purposes for the data storage.