Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, the state’s highest appellate court, recently held that website operators’ use of third-party tracking software, including Meta Pixel and Google Analytics, is not prohibited under the state’s Wiretap Act.

On October 31, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights announced two settlements over medical providers’ failures to comply with the HIPAA Security Rule, one with Plastic Surgery Associates of South Dakota and one with Bryan County Ambulance Authority.  The settlements mark the sixth and seventh OCR enforcement actions related to ransomware attacks with the latter being the first enforcement action in OCR’s Risk Analysis Initiative.

As reported on the Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives blog, on October 24, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) issued a policy statement (known as a Circular) to explain the link between the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) and employers’ growing use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) to evaluate, rank and score applicants and employees. Employers should take note that the FCRA does not only apply to criminal history or credit reports. As the use of advanced data analysis and AI rise, employers should ensure that they are not running afoul of the FCRA’s requirements.

The California Privacy Protection Agency recently announced that it is conducting an investigative sweep focused on enforcing requirements for data brokers to register with the CPPA by January 31, 2024, under California’s Delete Act.

On November 8, 2024, the California Privacy Protection Agency Board hosted its public bimonthly meeting, during which it adopted new regulations applicable to data brokers and initiated the formal rulemaking process for proposed regulations for risk assessments, cybersecurity audits, automated decisionmaking technologies and AI, and insurance.

On November 7, 2024, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office released a report exploring data privacy concerns in genomic technology.

On November 1, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights and the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy announced the release of a new version of the Security Risk Assessment Tool.

On November 6, 2024, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office published a report following consensual audit engagements conducted between August 2023 and May 2024 with developers and providers of artificial intelligence powered sourcing, screening, and selection tools used in recruitment.

On November 4, 2024, the European Data Protection Board adopted its first report under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

On October 24, 2024, the White House released a memorandum implementing Executive Order 14110 on national security and responsible AI.