Privacy

As a reminder that the promises you make on your website must align with your data privacy practices,the FTC announced that it just reached reached a settlement with a background screening company over allegations it falsely claimed to be a participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield program. In separate actions, the FTC also sent warning letters to more than a… Read More

Tomorrow is the deadline for fiscal committees to report bills to the floor of the California legislative chambers. So, today,  the Senate Appropriations Committee held a special hearing on all bills previously placed in the suspense file.  For those following the CCPA, the focus was on SB 561 introduced by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D – Santa Barbara), and co-authored by… Read More

Every article regarding any bill referred to the California Senate (or Assembly) Appropriations Committee suspense file begins with a pun about being in suspense, and so does ours.  At a hearing of the California Senate Appropriations Committee on April 29, 2019, Senate Bill 561, written by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D – Santa Barbara), which would add a private right of… Read More

As the deadline for policy committees in the California Legislature to report non-fiscal bills out of their respective Committees looms, this week saw a number of privacy-related bills heard in the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection. In addition, the appropriations committees are also facing deadlines in mid-May to hear hundreds of bills that would have a fiscal impact… Read More

In the last two months, we have kept you up to date on the progress of California Senate Bill 561, Jackson (D – Santa Barbara), a bill backed by the California Attorney General that would add a full private right of action to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”), allowing any California consumer to sue any company… Read More

On April 23, 2019, the California Assembly’s Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection (the “Committee”) held a whirlwind, three-hour hearing on 40 pending bills, including numerous bills that relate to consumer privacy and amend the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”). With a deadline of April 26 for the Committee to report fiscal bills and a deadline of… Read More

In this blog post, https://www.severson.com/consumer-finance/ccpa-ab-1760-amended-to-become-privacy-for-all-act-of-2019/, we previously reported on the “Privacy for All Act of 2019”, Assembly Bill 1760 (“AB 1760” or the “Bill”), introduced by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D – Oakland).  Less than a month after Assemblywoman Wicks introduced the Bill, which would have re-enacted much of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”), but would have… Read More

Supporters of Senate Bill 561 (Jackson – D, Santa Barbara) relied on a recent poll of 800 likely 2020 presidential election voters in California, commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (the “ACLU”) and conducted by David Binder Research, to support stronger privacy laws in California.  The poll was brought to light at a recent Senate committee hearing… Read More

We'll be co-hosting a webinar on May 9, 2019 on Cybersecurity Incident Avoidance and Response.   Click on the Invite Link to register! Cybersecurity Incident Avoidance and Response Invite           Read More

On April 9, 2019, the California State Senate Standing Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on Senate Bill 561.  As followers of this ‘blog know, SB 561, introduced by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, a Democrat from Santa Barbara, and requested and sponsored by the California Attorney General, would provide for a private right of action for any violation of the… Read More

Before April 4, 2019, AB 1760 was a benign bill that fixed a few typographical errors in the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the "CCPA"). After the bill was amended on April 4, AB 1760 turned into a wholesale replacement of the CCPA with the "Privacy for All Act of 2019".  Introduced by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), newly-amended AB… Read More

The deadline for introducing new legislation in the California Legislature for the 2019 Legislative session was February 22, 2019. While new amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) could still be introduced via the “gut and amend” maneuver (which is how the CCPA itself was introduced in June 2018), we now have a general idea of… Read More

In Frank v. Gaos, the SCOTUS today placed further standing impediments to privacy and other purely statutory/no damages class actions, finding, following objections to the class action settlement, that the case should be remanded to determine standing under Spokeo.  The background facts were as follows: Three named plaintiffs brought class action claims against Google for alleged violations of the Stored Communications Act.… Read More

Today, the FCC issued its 2018 Privacy and Data Security Update, a compendium for attorneys, business executives, and others who are long on interest, but short on time. It summarizes the seven zones that were central to the FTC’s 360° approach in 2018.  The Report can be found in embedded links with the FCC’s press release today. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2019/03/ftcs-2018-privacy-data-security-update-what-it-means-your?utm_source=govdelivery Read More

On March 5, 2019, the California Attorney General held the seventh and final public forum regarding its rulemaking authority under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) at Stanford Law School in Palo Alto, California.  The forum was well-attended, with approximately 50-75 attendees, 26 of whom spoke at the forum.  The forum was hosted by three representatives from the… Read More

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking comment on proposed amendments to two rules that protect the privacy and security of customer information held by financial institutions. In separate notices to be published in the Federal Register, the FTC is seeking comment on proposed changes to the Safeguards Rule and the Privacy Rule under GLBA.  The Safeguards Rule requires a financial… Read More

On February 20, 2019, the Attorney General’s Privacy Unit testified before the California State Assembly, requesting, among other things, that the CaCPA be amended to eliminate the safe harbor and to allow broader private rights of action.  We previously reported on that testimony here:  https://www.severson.com/consumer-finance/california-ag-takes-hard-line-on-ccpa-tells-california-assembly-to-broaden-private-rights-of-action-and-to-eliminate-safe-harbor/).  On February 22, 2019, California State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D – Santa Barbara) answered the… Read More

On Wednesday, February 20, 2019, Stacey D. Schesser, the Supervising Deputy Attorney General for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s Privacy Unit of the Consumer Law Section, spoke to the Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection of the California State Assembly, which is examining potential amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”), California’s sweeping consumer privacy law… Read More

In Razuki v. Caliber Home Loans, Inc., Case No. 17-CV-1718-LAB (WVG), 2018 WL 6018361 (S.D. Cal. Nov. 15, 2018), Judge Burns showed the difficulty that an identity theft victim has in seeking to make a claim arising out of a data breach, dismissing the Plaintiff’s claims with prejudice.  As to the negligence claim, the Court found an absence of appreciable harm.… Read More

On July 16, 2018, we reported on the new California Data Privacy Protection Act (the "CCPA").  As anticipated, the California Legislature amended the CCPA on September 23, 2018, when Governor Jerry Brown signed SB-1121 into law.  Our discussion of SB-1121 is here.  For questions, please contact Genevieve Walser-Jolly at grw@severson.com    Read More