Privacy/Data Protection

At its Sept. 8 board meeting, the California Privacy Protection Agency reviewed draft regulations addressing cybersecurity audits and risk assessments. If adopted, the proposed regulations would require many businesses already subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act to conduct new, independent audits of their cybersecurity programs.  The proposed regulations would also impose broad rules

Last week, Delaware Governor John Carney signed into law the Delaware Personal Data Privacy Act (“DPDPA”), the state’s new consumer privacy law that will become effective January 1, 2025. The First State is now the 12th state to fully enact a comprehensive consumer data privacy law, joining California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. Our previous posts on laws in those states can be found here. Though the DPDPA generally tracks consumer privacy laws in other states—particularly those in Colorado, Connecticut, and Oregon—it does contain nuances that organizations should note, particularly a lack of general exclusions for nonprofits and higher education institutions as well as a lower threshold for applicability.

Continue Reading Delaware Becomes Twelfth State to Pass Consumer Privacy Law

On this episode of the R&G Tech Studio, mergers & acquisitions partner Sarah Young sits down with data, privacy & cybersecurity partner Fran Faircloth to discuss how she advises clients on all aspects of corporate strategy, and whether she thinks artificial intelligence and machine learning will impact her clients in the months and years

Just before the July 4th holiday, the California Superior Court in Sacramento gave businesses struggling to comply with the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) a small gift by delaying enforcement of the CPRA’s regulations until March of 2024 at the earliest. While helpful in some respects, discussed below, the ruling does not expressly prohibit the California Privacy Protection Agency (“Agency”) from enforcing the underlying text of the CPRA where implementing regulations are not required. Ashkan Soltani, the executive director of the Agency, has been quoted as stating that “significant portions” of the law can still be enforced immediately. 

In short, businesses should not assume the Agency will remain idle. CPRA compliance remains a priority, though the Agency has indicated that enforcement is likely to proceed slowly at first—given staffing shortages at the Agency—with an initial emphasis on voluntary compliance. Further clarity on the Agency’s enforcement plans may be forthcoming on July 14, when the Agency is scheduled to hold a board meeting featuring Michael Macko, the Agency’s Deputy Director of Enforcement, who will provide an update on the Agency’s enforcement priorities.

Continue Reading Enforcement of CPRA Regulations Delayed, but CPRA Compliance Still a Priority

Ropes & Gray, in partnership with Mass Insight Global Partnerships, hosts and presents the Data Insights webinar series. This series focuses on bringing together business people, academics and researchers, and government policy makers to discuss issues associated with the collection and use of data to address significant problems across a broad range of contexts. The

The debate concerning the UK’s controversial Online Safety Bill (OSB) has continued to rumble on in recent days, with the UK Government reportedly again being warned that there is a real risk that certain messaging apps could be withdrawn from the UK if compromises cannot be reached on a number of issues.  

The OSB, which is currently being debated in the House of Lords, aims to increase the responsibility of social media platforms for their users’ safety.  It is intended to protect both children and adults in various ways.  

Continue Reading Controversy around the UK’s Online Safety Bill continues

Since 2000, technological advances have transformed how customers interact with financial institutions and how such firms store, process and protect personal information. The proliferation of large-scale hacks and data breaches throughout this time simultaneously demonstrated the difficulty of data protection given the ever-evolving nature of cybercrime. Despite these developments, the SEC has failed to update

Find an umbrella. . . .  The recent deluge of state-level privacy legislation continues.  Legislatures in three additional states—Indiana, Montana, and Tennessee—have adopted comprehensive privacy laws.  The Indiana Consumer Data Protection Act (ICDPA) was signed into law on May 1, 2023, making Indiana the seventh state to adopt such a law, and legislatures in Montana and Tennessee have passed legislation that is expected to be signed into law by their respective governors soon.  Only one month ago, Iowa became the sixth state to adopt a comprehensive privacy law, and, of course, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia each have laws that either are already in effect or that will go into effect later his year.  Meanwhile, on April 27, 2023, the governor of Washington signed into law the My Health My Data Act, a significant development that will impact many businesses that collect or process consumer health data (expect an update on this topic here soon).  

Continue Reading When It Rains, It Pours (State Privacy Laws)

Tune in to the third episode of Ropes & Gray’s podcast series, The Data Day, brought to you by the firm’s data, privacy & cybersecurity practice. This series focuses on the day-to-day effects that data has on all of our lives as well as other exciting and interesting legal and regulatory developments in the

A number of encrypted messaging services have signed an open letter calling on the UK Government to reconsider various aspects of the Online Safety Bill (OSB) pending its final reading in the House of Lords, over concerns that the bill could threaten end-to-end encryption.

End-to-end encryption currently delivers a strong level of security for electronic messages, meaning that messages can only be read on the apps of the sender and intended recipient.  

Continue Reading Messaging Apps Call for Re-evaluation of the Online Safety Bill