Following our June 4 and July 2, 2018 blog posts tracking California's November 2018 ballot measure turned hastily enacted new California privacy law titled The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), Alston & Bird's Privacy & Data Security Group released a more detailed "first look" review of California’s sweeping new law. The advisory provides an overview of the new law, which establishes an array of privacy rights for state residents and worries for businesses nationwide, and concludes with key initial takeaways for business.
Read the advisory here. [...] Read more
As discussed in this blog’s June 4, 2018 blog post, a group called Californians for Consumer Privacy gathered enough signatures for a new measure called the Consumer Right to Privacy Act to qualify for the November 2018 ballot. With momentum building for passage of that ballot measure, various stakeholders met with California legislators to devise a bill that could be passed in place of the measure (and to the satisfaction of the measure’s backers). The legislature and governor had until last Thursday, June 28 – the deadline for the measure’s backers to remove it from the November’s [...] Read more
In early May, a group called Californians for Consumer Privacy gathered enough signatures for the Consumer Right to Privacy Act (CRPA) to qualify for the November 2018 ballot.
The ballot initiative builds on existing California laws directed at protecting the privacy of California consumers’ personal information, including the Shine the Light law (Civil Code §1798.83) and the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA, Business & Professions Code §§22575-22579).
The CRPA sets forth a statutory framework that: 1) gives consumers the right to know what categories of personal [...] Read more
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission granted a petition by Sears Holding Management seeking modification of a 2009 Commission Order. The notable 2009 Order settled allegations that Sears had improperly failed to provide notice regarding data collection by certain software the company offered to consumers. Sears argued that the 2009 Order placed it at a “competitive disadvantage” in the mobile application marketplace. The now-modified Order enables Sears to conduct certain “consumer-expected” forms of data collection and use without requiring heightened notice or consent under the 2009 [...] Read more
About this time last January, the European Parliament released its proposal for a new ePrivacy Regulation. The intent of the ePrivacy Regulation is to replace the current ePrivacy regime – which consists of an ePrivacy Directive and a patchwork of local implementing legislation – with a uniform set of directly-applicable EU-wide rules. Since the Parliament released its ePrivacy Regulation draft, both the European Council and the European Parliament have reviewed it and released their own revised drafts.
The ePrivacy Regulation contains a number of important rules for companies. Traditionally, [...] Read more
In what it considered “an unusual case” (available here), the Irish High Court has referred the issue of the way data is transferred between the EU and countries outside the EU to the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”). Ms. Justice Caroline Costello will ask the CJEU for a preliminary ruling on the validity of the Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) as an adequate data transfer mechanism. Justice Costello did not comment on the laws of the EU or the US, but rather on the validity of SCCs as a data transfer measure between the EU and the US.
The case arose from a complaint [...] Read more
Japan’s Act on Protection of Personal Information currently in force (“Current APPI”) dates back to 2003. It was originally enacted on May 30, 2003, and came into effect in 2005. Ten years later, the National Diet passed extensive reforms to modernize the Current APPI in September, 2015. Although the Amended Act on Protection of Personal Information (“Amended APPI”) has been partly in effect, it will come fully into effect on May 30, 2017.
It is important to note that the Amended APPI applies to “personal information handling business operators” which is defined as a person [...] Read more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released its staff report on Cross-Device Tracking.
Cross-device tracking refers to the tracking of consumer activity across multiple devices such as smartphones, desktops, tablets and other connected devices. It helps companies understand consumer behavior better. The tracking can be deterministic (where a user logs into multiple devices affirmatively identifying the device as his/hers) or probabilistic (companies infer cross-device activity using factors like common IP address). Benefits include account security, fraud detection, targeted advertising [...] Read more
On July 14, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had issued warning letters to 28 companies regarding their claim of participation in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Cross Border Privacy Rule (APEC CBPR) system. The APEC CBPR system is a voluntary, enforceable mechanism that certifies a company’s compliance with the principles in the APEC CBPR and facilitates privacy-respecting transfers of data among APEC member economies.
The warning letter states the FTC’s records do not indicate these companies have taken the requisite steps to be able to claim participation [...] Read more
On June 29, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it had approved a final order resolving the complaint against Vipvape, a manufacturer of hand-held vaporizers. The complaint alleged Vipvape misrepresented its practices on the website related to Vipvape’s participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) system when, if fact, Vipvape was not certified to participate in the APEC CBPR system.
In the Analysis of Proposed Consent Order to Aid Public Comment, the FTC explained that the APEC CBPR system is a voluntary, enforceable mechanism [...] Read more
