On February 6, 2017, the FTC and New Jersey Attorney General and Department of Consumer Affairs filed a Complaint and Stipulated Order for Permanent Injunction and Monetary Judgment against television manufacturer VIZIO,...more
On January 23, 2017, the FTC Staff released its long-awaited Report (“Report”) on cross-device tracking following its November 2015 workshop on the topic. The Report explains what cross-device tracking is, discusses the...more
On January 10, 2017, the European Commission presented its proposal for a Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications (the “Proposed Regulation”). The Proposed Regulation would repeal and replace Directive 2002/58/EC...more
On January 5, 2017, the FTC filed a complaint against the Taiwanese company D-Link and its US subsidiary, D-Link Systems. D-Link and its subsidiary manufacture and sell networked devices, including routers and...more
On December 21, 2016, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union handed down another important judgment regarding data privacy in the European Union. The court held that under the Charter on Fundamental...more
The EU’s Article 29 Working Party (WP29) held a plenary meeting in early December 2016. At the meeting, the WP29 adopted guidelines and issued FAQs relating to the EU General Data Protection Regulation’s (GDPR’s) provisions...more
What are the promises and potential privacy pitfalls when you take an old-fashioned television and connect it to the Internet? On December 7, 2016, the FTC hosted the final installment its Fall Technology Series in an effort...more
On Thursday, December 1, the nonpartisan Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, established pursuant to an Executive Order in February, issued its report, outlining more than 50 recommendations for the next...more
On November 10, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted LabMD’s motion to stay enforcement, pending appeal, of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) order against the company for its allegedly deficient data...more
The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) recently announced that self-regulatory enforcement of its cross-device guidance will begin in February 2017. Accordingly, companies that engage in cross-device tracking and...more
The Federal Trade Commission kicked-off its series of fall technology events with an afternoon workshop exploring ransomware on Wednesday, September 7. While malicious computer code is nothing new, infiltrating computer...more
The Federal Trade Commission has announced the full agenda for its upcoming September 15 workshop examining disclosures made to consumers in the course of making advertising claims and describing privacy practices. The...more
The Privacy Shield framework is a voluntary program that provides companies with a mechanism for complying with EU data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the EU to the US. The framework is open to...more
In a widely anticipated move, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has overruled a decision by its own Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) that had dismissed a case against a medical testing laboratory accused of unreasonable data...more
Video Privacy Protection Act -
This article explores how personally identifiable information has been defined in leading Video Privacy Protection Act actions and looks at how concerns over the potential sensitivity of...more
7/25/2016
/ Cartoon Network ,
CNN ,
Disney ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Geolocation ,
Google ,
GPS ,
Hulu ,
Mobile Apps ,
Netflix ,
Nickelodeon ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Split of Authority ,
Third-Party ,
Viacom ,
VPPA
Recent actions against two prominent mobile app developers serve as a warning for companies that authorize third parties to collect and use information over time for advertising in mobile apps (known as interest-based...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued warning letters to 28 companies that claim to be certified participants in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative’s (APEC) Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) system on their...more
7/15/2016
/ APEC ,
Asia Pacific ,
Certifications ,
Code of Conduct ,
Cross-Border ,
Data Security ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
International Data Transfers ,
Misrepresentation ,
Privacy Policy ,
Websites
The European Commission formally adopted the EU-US Privacy Shield on July 12, 2016, ending months of legal uncertainty with a new framework for governing transatlantic data transfers after the Privacy Safe Harbor framework...more
7/13/2016
/ Data Protection Authority ,
Data Retention ,
EU ,
EU-US Privacy Shield ,
European Commission ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
International Data Transfers ,
Personal Data ,
Privacy Policy ,
Self-Certification ,
Surveillance ,
Third-Party ,
U.S. Commerce Department
After months of back and forth, an updated version of the EU-US Privacy Shield agreement originally announced in February is on the verge of being formally adopted on Tuesday, July 12, 2016. While the final documents...more
The first European Union-wide rules on cybersecurity have been adopted by the European Parliament. Approved on July 6, 2016, the Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems (NIS Directive) creates new risk...more
7/7/2016
/ Cyber Incident Reporting ,
Cyber Threats ,
Cybersecurity ,
Digital Service Providers ,
ENISA ,
EU ,
EU Cybersecurity Directives ,
International Harmonization ,
Member State ,
Operators of Essential Services ,
Popular ,
Risk Management
For the first time since 2009, the potential civil penalties for violating an administrative consent order under Section 5(b) of the FTC Act is going up. The maximum civil penalty the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can now...more
7/6/2016
/ CAN-SPAM Act ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
COPPA ,
Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Interim Rule ,
Labeling ,
Section 5 ,
Telemarketing Sales Rule
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals handed the defendants a partial victory in In re Nickelodeon Consumer Privacy Litigation on June 27. While its decision last year in In re Google Inc. Cookie Placement Consumer Privacy...more
6/30/2016
/ COPPA ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data-Sharing ,
Google ,
Invasion of Privacy ,
IP Addresses ,
Nickelodeon ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing ,
Third-Party ,
Unique Device Identifiers ,
Viacom ,
VPPA
A mobile device’s geolocation can be passed to apps and ad networks through various application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by Android or iOS, but there are other ways to determine a consumer’s location using...more
In an effort to “reduce some of the ambiguous legal liability” that exists under Section 5 of the FTC Act, the House Energy and Commerce trade subcommittee advanced eleven legislative initiatives consolidated into four bills...more
As the Federal Communications Commission sifts through over 50,000 comments received in response to its proposed broadband privacy rules, the Federal Trade Commission’s comments are likely to stand as a highlight. In a...more
6/1/2016
/ Big Data ,
Broadband ,
Data Security ,
FCC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Inducements ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
Opt-In ,
Opt-Outs ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Privacy Notice Rule ,
Third-Party Relationships