Privacy law in the 21st century: due for an update?

In honor of Data Protection Day (tomorrow, January 28) and its “Think Privacy” theme, let’s turn our attention to a few current efforts to bring legislated privacy requirements into the 21st century. In Europe, privacy watchers…

Supreme Court case to consider limits on workplace privacy

The Supreme Court last week agreed to hear arguments in a case on employee privacy and the extent to which government agencies can monitor the content of personal communications made by their employees while using government-owned…

House passes Data Accountability and Trust Act

Legislation passed by the House of Representatives this week (H.R. 2221, the Data Accountability and Trust Act) includes provisions both for national standards on data breach notifications and adding new responsibilities and consumer empowerment protections to…

Sometimes a breach is data theft, sometimes it’s business as usual

Among the latest unauthorized disclosures of personal information making headlines is the admission last week by T-Mobile that thousands of its British customers had essentially become pawns in a “black market” for mobile service subscriber information…

Health Net breach highlights weaknesses in state-level breach laws

While affected Connecticut residents and authorities are understandably upset about the recently reported loss by regional health plan provider Health Net of personal information on all 446,000 Connecticut customers served by the plan, the six-month delay…

European Union going fully opt-in on cookies

In another example of stronger individual-level privacy protections in the European Community compared to those in the United States, the EU Council this week approved a law that requires online users to be asked for explicit…

Are skeptics on federal data breach law missing the point?

As noted in this space last week, based on recent activity in the Senate and similar if less immediate legislative proposals in the House of Representatives, it seems possible that Congress will move ahead with enactment…