The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced updates to the IdentityTheft.gov website aimed at making the site more useful to victims of identity theft. The changes will enable consumers to quickly file complaints and develop a personalized recovery plan after answering a number of questions on the site. “Our hope is that this is going […]
Regulatory Enforcement
FTC’s Ability to Regulate Data Security Potentially Limited in FTC v. LabMD
A November 13, 2015 decision from the Federal Trade Commission’s Chief Administrative Law Judge, D. Michael Chappell, calls into question FTC enforcement in the data privacy space. The case began when the FTC filed a complaint on August 28, 2013 after an employee of LabMD, a cancer detection laboratory, downloaded peer-to-peer (“P2P”) software that exposed patient […]
A Busy Month for German Data Protection
The European Court of Justice handed down its Schrems decision invalidating the Safe Harbor mechanism on October 6, 2015. Since then, companies have been looking to the Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) of EU member states to see how the decision would be interpreted and enforced. As many companies know, Germany is a multifaceted data-protection landscape. […]
Peter Swire Quoted In International Business Times on “Peeple” App Privacy Concerns
Peter Swire, senior counsel in Alston & Bird’s Privacy & Data Security Group and Georgia Institute of Technology Scheller College of Business professor was quoted in International Business Times regarding privacy compliance concerns for the soon-to-be rating app “Peeple.” The app, nicknamed “Yelp for Humans” by the media, will allegedly allow users to review other people […]
Third Circuit Affirms FTC’s Authority to Regulate Data Security
On August 24, 2015, the Third Circuit affirmed U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas’ April 2014 ruling in FTC v. Wyndham Worldwide Corp., et al. (“Wyndham”) that the FTC has the authority to regulate private companies’ cybersecurity practices under Section 5 of the FTC Act. (Prior blog posts on this case can be found here […]