Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On September 24, 2013, the Singapore Personal Data Protection Commission (the “Commission”) published guidelines to facilitate implementation of the Singapore Personal Data Protection Act (the “PDPA”). The Advisory Guidelines on Key Concepts in the Personal Data Protection Act and the Advisory Guidelines on the Personal Data Protection Act for Selected Topics provide explanations of concepts underlying the data protection principles in the PDPA, and offer guidance on how the Commission may interpret and apply the PDPA with respect to certain issues (e.g., anonymization, employment, national identification numbers). The guidelines are advisory only; they are not legally binding.

On September 25, 2013, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, expanded his investigation of the data broker industry by asking twelve popular health and personal finance websites to answer questions about their data collection and sharing practices.

On September 23 and 24, 2013, a declaration and eight resolutions were adopted by the closed session of the 35th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners and have been published on the conference website. This blog post provides an overview of the declaration and the most significant resolutions.

On September 26, 2013, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) published new breach notification guidance (the “Guidance”), applicable to telecom operators, Internet service providers (“ISPs”) and other public electronic communications service (“ECS”) providers.

On September 23, 2013, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that adds “Privacy Rights for California Minors in the Digital World” to the California Online Privacy Protection Act (“CalOPPA”). The new CalOPPA provisions prohibit online marketing or advertising certain products to anyone under age 18, and require website operators to honor requests made by minors who are registered users to remove content the minor posted on the site. In addition, operators must provide notice and instructions to minors explaining their rights regarding the removal of content they’ve posted.

Recent months have seen a significant increase in highly-publicized cyber attacks and cybersecurity incidents, including an August 2013 attack on The New York Times’ website that shut down the site twice in two weeks. Unsurprisingly, there also has been an upswing in the demand for, and underwriting of, cyber insurance. In a recent Law360 article, Takeaways from Recent Cyberattack on New York Times, Hunton & Williams Insurance Litigation & Counseling partner Lon Berk considers whether a hypothetical cyber insurance policy would have covered such a loss.

Today, September 23, 2013, marks the deadline for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) Omnibus Rule that was issued in January 2013. Covered entities, business associates and subcontractors that access, use or disclose protected health information (“PHI”) will need to take the following actions:

On September 6, 2013, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding traveled to Berlin where she commented on the status of the negotiations on the proposed EU General Data Protection Regulation (the “Proposed Regulation”). Commissioner Reding indicated that she was looking for Germany to become involved in the discussions about the Proposed Regulation at the highest level, and she argued in favor of stricter regulations given recent revelations about surveillance programs such as PRISM. Because the vote on the Proposed Regulation only requires a majority to pass, she also emphasized that it would not be necessary to obtain the agreement of all of the EU Member States (for example, the UK or Ireland).

Hunton & Williams LLP is pleased to announce that several privacy lawyers were named to the New York Metro Super Lawyers list for 2013. For the eighth consecutive year, Lisa J. Sotto, partner and head of the Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice at Hunton & Williams LLP, was selected as a New York Super Lawyer. She also was featured in the latest edition of New York Super Lawyers Magazine in an article entitled “The Queen of Breach: Privacy Expert Lisa Sotto Goes Public.” In addition, partner Aaron P. Simpson was included as a Rising Star for the third year in a row, and associate ...

This week, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”), in conjunction with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, released model Notices of Privacy Practices. The notices, which have been developed for use by health care providers and health plans, come in different formats:

• an 8-page booklet;
• a 5-page layered notice that summarizes key details on the first page and includes the full content of the booklet on the remaining four pages;
• a 5-page condensed version of the 8-page booklet; and
• a 6-page text-only version of the booklet.