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Last week, five advertising and marketing trade associations jointly filed comments with the California Attorney General seeking clarification on provisions within the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

While expressing “strong support” for the CCPA’s intent, and noting the online ad industry’s longstanding consumer privacy efforts like the DAA’s YourAdChoices Program, the group proposed the following three clarifications relating to CCPA provisions that, unless modified, the group believes could reduce consumer choice and privacy:

  • Notice relating to a sale of consumer data: A company’s written assurance of CCPA compliance should satisfy the requirement to provide a consumer with “explicit notice” (under 1798.115(d)) when a company sells a consumer’s personal data that the company did not receive directly from such consumer;
  • Partial opt-out from the sale of consumer data: When responding to a consumer’s request to opt out of the sale of personal data, companies can present consumers with choices on the types of “sales” from which to opt-out, the types of data to be deleted, or whether to opt out completely, rather than simply offering an all or nothing opt-out.
  • No individualized privacy policies: Businesses should not be required to create individualized privacy policies for each consumer to satisfy the requirement that a privacy policy disclose to consumers the specific pieces of personal data the business has collected about them.

The associations signing on to the comments include the Association of National Advertisers, American Advertising Federation, Interactive Advertising Bureau, American Association of Advertising Agencies, and the Network Advertising Initiative. The comments represent an “initial” submission intended to raise the proposals above and, more broadly, highlight to the California AG the importance of the online-ad supported ecosystem and its impact on the economy.  The associations plan to submit more detailed comments in the coming weeks.

The comments coincide with a series of public forums that the California AG is hosting to provide interested parties with an initial opportunity to comment on CCPA requirements and the corresponding regulations that the Attorney General must adopt on or before July 1, 2020.

 

In the Data Business? You May Be Obligated to Register in Vermont by Thursday

Data brokers have until this Thursday to register with the Vermont Secretary of State as part of a new data broker oversight law that became effective January 1st.

Approved unanimously by the Vermont Senate last May, the Vermont Data Broker Regulation, Act 171 of 2018, requires data brokers to register annually, pay an annual filing fee of $100, and maintain minimum data security standards, but the law does not prevent data brokers from collecting or selling consumer data.

What Qualifies as a “Data Broker”?

The law only applies to “data broker[s],” defined as a “business, or unit or units of a business, separately or together, that knowingly collects and sells or licenses to third parties the brokered personal information of a consumer with whom the business does not have a direct relationship.” Continue Reading In the Data Business? You May Be Obligated to Register in Vermont by Thursday

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As we noted previously, the California Attorney General is holding a series of public forums on the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to provide the public with an initial opportunity to comment on CCPA requirements and the corresponding regulations that the Attorney General must adopt on or before July 1, 2020.  On Friday, January 25, 2019, the Attorney General’s Office held its fourth of six hearings before a full auditorium in Los Angeles.  This blog post summarizes the main themes discussed at the hearing.

Timing/Scope:  For businesses hoping for CCPA clarity and guidance soon, that seems unlikely. California Deputy Attorney General Lisa Kim initiated the hearing, emphasizing that the Attorney General’s Office was in the beginning of its rulemaking process and noting that she anticipated the formal review process not to start until Fall 2019.  For now, the Attorney General’s Office encouraged interested parties to submit comments by the end of February, focusing on subjects within the scope of the Attorney General’s rulemaking responsibilities, as set forth in the CCPA, including:

  • Categories of Personal Information
  • Definition of Unique Identifiers
  • CCPA Exemptions
  • Submitting and Complying with Consumer Requests
  • Uniform Opt-Out Logo/Button
  • Notices and Information to Consumers, including Financial Incentive Offerings
  • Certification of Consumers’ Requests

During the hearing, the Attorney General’s Office displayed this PowerPoint deck, summarizing the CCPA regulatory process.

Main Themes

Continue Reading California Privacy Update: What We Heard at Friday’s CCPA Hearing

On Monday, France’s Data Protection Agency announced that it levied a €50 million ($56.8 million) fine against Google for violating the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  The precedent-setting fine by the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (“CNIL”) is the highest yet imposed since the new law took effect in May 2018.

How Does Google Violate GDPR, According to CNIL?

  • Lack of Transparency: GDPR Articles 12-13 require a data controller to provide data subjects with transparent, intelligible, and easily accessible information relating to the scope and purpose of the personal data processing, and the lawful basis for such processing. CNIL asserts that Google fails to meet the required level of transparency based on the following:
    • Information is not intelligible: Google’s description of its personal data processing and associated personal data categories is “too generic and vague.”
    • Information is not easily accessible: Data subjects must access multiple Google documents or pages and take a number of distinct actions (“5 or 6”) to obtain complete information on the personal data that Google collects for personalization purposes and geo-tracking.
    • Lawful basis for processing is unclear: Data subjects may mistakenly view the legal basis for processing by Google as legitimate interests (that does not require consent) rather than individual consent.
    • Data retention period is not specified: Google fails to provide information on the period that it retains certain personal data.
  • Invalid Consent: Per GDPR Articles 5-7, a data controller relying on consent as the lawful basis for processing of personal data must be able to demonstrate that consent by a data subject is informed, specified, and unambiguous. CNIL claims that Google fails to capture valid consent from data subjects as follows:
    • Consent is not “informed”: Google’s data processing description for its advertising personalization services is diluted across several documents and does not clearly describe the scope of processing across multiple Google services, the amount of data processed, and the manner in which the data is combined.
    • Consent is not unambiguous: Consent for advertising personalization appears as pre-checked boxes.
    • Consent is not specific: Consent across all Google services is captured via consent to the Google Terms of Services and Privacy Policy rather than a user providing distinct consent for each Google personal data use case.

What Does This Mean for Other Companies?

Continue Reading C’est la vie? French Regulator Fines Google Nearly $57 million for GDPR Non-compliance

On January 10, 2019, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed into law the Massachusetts’s Data Breach Notification Act, which amends Massachusetts data breach reporting laws. The new law, available here, amends the timing and content of individual and regulator data breach notifications, and provides for credit monitoring services when social security numbers may have been compromised.

Key updates to the state’s data breach notification laws include the following:

  • Free Credit Monitoring: Following breaches involving Social Security numbers, entities must “contract with a third party to provide” free credit monitoring services to impacted Massachusetts residents at no cost for at least 18 months (42 months, if the company is a consumer reporting agency), and provide consumers with instructions on how to access these services.
  • No Mandatory Arbitration Clauses: Companies are prohibited from asking individuals to waive their right to a private action as a condition for receiving credit monitoring services.
  • Additional Required Information for the Breach Notice: The required notice to consumers, the Massachusetts Attorney General, and the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation already provided for under current Massachusetts law must now also include additional information such as the name and address of the person that experienced the breach of security, the person responsible for the breach, if known, and the type of personal information compromised. Entities are also required to submit to regulators a sample of the notification letters that they send to consumers, which will be posted online.
  • Notice Timing: An entity may not delay notice to affected individuals on the grounds that it has not determined the total number of individuals affected. Rather, the entity must send out additional notices on a rolling basis, as necessary.
  • Disclosure of Parent/Affiliate Company: If the company experiencing a breach is owned by a separate entity, the individual notice letter must specify “the name of the parent or affiliated corporation.”

Under Massachusetts data security regulations (201 CMR § 17.03), any entity that owns or licenses personal information about a Massachusetts resident is currently obligated to develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive written information security program that incorporates the prescriptive requirements contained in the regulation.

The Massachusetts’s Data Breach Notification Act will take effect on April 11, 2019. This is a good opportunity for businesses to update their data breach notification related policies and procedures to ensure that they are in compliance with all state requirements. We will continue to track any updates to state breach notification statutes and post on this blog.

43 State Attorneys General and the District of Columbia announced yesterday a settlement with Neiman Marcus Group LLC resolving the states’ investigation into the company’s 2013 data breach and its security practices. Over a three-month period in 2013, a breach of the Dallas-based retailer exposed customer credit card data at 77 Neiman Marcus stores nationwide. The data breach, discovered in 2014, resulted in access to over 370,000 Neiman Marcus credit cards, at least 9,200 of which the states alleged were used fraudulently.

In addition to a monetary settlement of $1.5 million, Neiman Marcus has agreed to implement a number of security-relatedinjunctive terms, including:

  • Complying with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements;
  • Maintaining an appropriate system to collect and monitor its network activity, and ensuring logs are regularly reviewed and monitored;
  • Maintaining working agreements with two separate, qualified Payment Card Industry forensic investigators;
  • Updating all software associated with maintaining and safeguarding personal information, and creating written plans for replacement or maintenance of software that is reaching its end-of-life or end-of-support date;
  • Implementing appropriate steps to review industry-accepted payment security technologies relevant to the company’s business; and
  • Devaluing payment card information, using technologies like encryption and tokenization, to obscure payment card data.

Neiman Marcus must also obtain an information security assessment and report from a qualified third-party professional and detail any corrective actions that it takes. The full settlement report is available here.

This settlement follows another multistate resolution with Adobe (here), highlighting the interest and monitoring by State Attorneys General on companies’ data security programs and steps taken to prevent, detect, and remediate data breaches. This most recent case is a good reminder to take steps to make sure you have an appropriate data security program in place, and that your records meaningfully reflect the comprehensive steps taken to address cyber incidents that may arise.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced yesterday that the California Department of Justice will hold a series of six public forums on the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).  The hearings will take place during January and February of this year and will give the public an initial opportunity to comment on the requirements set forth by the CCPA and the regulations the Attorney General must adopt on or before July 1, 2020.

The CCPA was passed in June of this year, and gives California residents specific privacy rights related to their online activities. Starting January 1, 2020, businesses will be required to comply with a number of provisions including requirements to disclose data collection and sharing practices to consumers, grant consumers a right to request deletion of their data, grant consumers a right to opt out of the sale of their personal information, and a prohibition on selling personal information of consumers under the age of 16 without explicit consent.

The CCPA requires the Attorney General to “solicit broad public participation” and adopt regulations regarding issues such as the definition of personal information, considering changes in technology and data collection practices, procedures for how a consumer can submit a request to opt out of the sale of his or her personal information, and procedures for businesses to determine whether a consumer’s request for information is verifiable.

The Attorney General’s announcement is particularly important because CCPA enforcement will not begin until six months after the promulgation of these regulations, or July 1, 2020, whichever is sooner.  These public forums indicate that Attorney General Becerra’s office is taking steps to adopt these rules, meaning CCPA enforcement may come sooner rather than later.

These hearings will serve as the first public forum in which businesses and members of the public can voice their thoughts or concerns about the required regulations. Members of the public who would like to speak at the forums can, but are not required to, register online. Comments may also be submitted via mail or email. A full schedule of the forums can be found here.

Kelley Drye is happy to assist if your business is considering whether to submit comments concerning the CCPA regulations or enforcement.  These forums present a critical opportunity for any stakeholder interested in California privacy law and enforcement to have their voices heard.  For more information on the CCPA and how it may affect your business, please visit our past blog posts here and here.

Yesterday, Christine Wilson was sworn in as FTC Commissioner. Commissioner Wilson – the fifth and final Trump appointee – joins the FTC from Delta Airlines and assumes former Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen’s seat. Commissioner Ohlhausen announced her departure on Tuesday – the day her term ended, concluding over six years of service as Commissioner, including a year-and-a-half as the agency’s Acting Chair before current Chair Joseph Simons assumed the role.

As we previously reported here, Commissioner Wilson overlapped with Chair Simons during his time as Director of the Bureau of Competition, while she served as Chief of Staff to then-Chair Timothy Muris. The FTC currently is in the middle of public hearings on consumer protection, privacy, and competition policy and enforcement, and we expect these hearings and the public comments received to help shape the Commission’s priorities going forward.

In June of this year, California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) giving California residents specific rights related to their online privacy, similar to those proscribed by GDPR. The law was passed hastily to avoid a stricter ballot measure on the subject, but Governor Brown recently signed a bill amending the law.

Many of the amendments clarify some of the CCPA’s “technical” errors, such as solidifying that the Act should not be enforced to contradict the California Constitution. The most significant change, however, deals with the enforcement of the Act. Although Section 1798.198 makes the Act operative on January 1, 2020, the newly-added Section 1798.185(7)(c) prevents the Attorney General from bringing an enforcement action under the Act until July 1, 2020, or six months after the final regulations made pursuant to the Act are published, whichever is sooner. Thus, although the effective date is January of 2020, the California Attorney General may not be able to bring enforcement actions until up to six months after the enactment date, depending on when the office promulgates regulations. The amendments also extend the date by which the Attorney General must promulgate regulations from January 1, 2020 to July 1, 2020.

Another point worth noting is that the amendments remove the requirement for a private plaintiff to inform the Attorney General of a claim he or she has brought to enforce his or her private cause of action under the Act. This eliminates the ability of the Attorney General to bring its own action in lieu of a private one.

Additional changes include specifying additional laws to which the Act does not apply, including: (1) the Confidentiality of Medication Information Act or regulations promulgated in response to HIPAA, or the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act; (2) the Federal Policy for Protection of Human Subjects; and (3) the California Financial Information Privacy Act. The amendments also limit the civil penalty to $2,500 per violation, or $7,500 for each intentional violation.

Although this bill has clarified some issues with the original law, this will likely not be the last set of amendments to the CCPA before it goes into effect. We will keep you posted.

 

Yesterday, the California legislature passed SB-327, a bill intended to regulate the security of internet-connected devices.  Unlike the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), SB-327 is significantly more narrow.  As enacted, the bill is a “lighter” version of what was first introduced and amended in 2017 (which, at that time, would have included certain disclosure and consent requirements for connected devices).

At its core, SB-327 requires connected devices to be equipped with “reasonable security features” that are:

  1. appropriate to the nature and function of the device;
  2. appropriate to the information it may collect, contain, or transmit; and
  3. designed to protect the device and any information contained therein from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.

Subject to the above, if a connected device is equipped with a means for authentication outside a local area network, this is considered a “reasonable security feature” if either: (a) the preprogrammed password is unique to each device manufactured; or (b) the device contains a security feature that requires a user to generate a new means of authentication before access is granted to the device for the first time. These requirements, of course, are in addition to any duties or obligations imposed under other laws (i.e., CCPA).

The term “connected device” is defined as “any device, or other physical object that is capable of connecting to the Internet, directly or indirectly, and that is assigned an Internet Protocol address or Bluetooth address.” Pretty much every device connected to the Internet is assigned either an IP address or Bluetooth address when it is connected. This can include, for example, anything from computers, tablets, and mobile devices, to smart watches, smart home hubs, or app-controlled toys.

The bill does not provide a private right of action. Only the Attorney General, a city attorney, a county counsel, or a district attorney can enforce the law, and the bill does not address (either directly or by implication) any specific penalties or remedies that may be sought by these entities. However, it’s possible that we see the requirement to implement reasonable security measures asserted as a basis for a legal duty in conjunction with other claims (either by the AG or consumers).

The bill was ordered to engrossing and enrolling. If signed by Governor Brown, the law would become effective on January 1, 2020 (same day as the CCPA).