Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On July 6, 2022, the Better Business Bureau National Programs’ Children’s Advertising Review Unit (“CARU”) announced that it had found Outright Games in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and CARU’s Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Advertising and Guidelines for Children’s Online Privacy Protection. Outright Games owns and operates the Bratz Total Fashion Makeover app, which CARU determined to be a “mixed audience” child-directed app subject to COPPA and CARU’s Guidelines due to the app’s subject matter, bright colors, visual content, lively audio and gameplay features.

On July 7, 2022, the Irish Data Protection Commission (the “DPC”) sent a draft decision to other EU data protection authorities, proposing to block Meta’s transfers of personal data from the EU to the United States.

On June 30, 2022, the New York Office of the Attorney General (“NYOAG”) announced a $400,000 agreement with Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. (“Wegmans”) in connection with a cloud storage security issue. The NYOAG alleges that Wegmans exposed the personal information of three million consumers by storing the data in misconfigured cloud storage containers.

On July 11, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection issued a business alert on businesses’ handling of sensitive data, with a particular focus on location and health data. The alert describes the “opaque” marketplace in which consumers’ location and health  data is collected and exchanged amongst businesses and the concerns and risks associated with the processing of such information. The alert specifically focuses on the “potent combination” of location data and user-generated health and biometric data (e.g., through the use of wellness and fitness apps and the sharing of face and other biometric data for app/device authentication purposes). According to the alert, the combination of location and health data “creates a new frontier of potential harms to consumers.”

On July 8, 2022, President Biden issued an Executive Order titled, “Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services,” in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade. The Executive Order aims, in part, to “ [p]rotect[] the privacy of patients and their access to accurate information” regarding reproductive health care services. It directs the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) and the Federal Trade Commission to take certain steps to address the potential threat to patient privacy caused by the transfer and sale of sensitive health-related data, and by digital surveillance related to reproductive health care services from fraudulent schemes or deceptive practices.

On June 30, 2022, the Cyberspace Administration of China (the “CAC”) issued a draft Provision on the Standard Contract for Cross-border Transfer of Personal Information (“Draft Provisions”) and a draft of the Standard Contract for Cross-border Transfer of Personal Information (“Standard Contract”) for public comments. Per Article 38 of the Personal Information Protection Law (“PIPL”), if the data handler is not required to conduct a government security assessment, it may choose either to conduct certification by a qualified third institution or to execute the Standard Contract for cross-border transfer of personal information. Certification might be more commonly used for cross-border transfer within a group, whereas the Standard Contract may be more popular under other scenarios of cross-border transfers.

On July 8, 2022, the California Privacy Protection Agency Board (“CPPA Board”) began the formal rulemaking process to establish regulations promulgating the amendments made to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) by the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) (collectively, the “CCPA/CPRA”). The CPPA Board issued a formal Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Initial Statement of Reasons, and released the proposed regulations. The 45-day public comment period has now begun.

On June 29, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued two guidance documents to “help protect patients seeking reproductive health care, as well as their providers” following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. These guidance documents address the legal protections for individuals’ protected health information (“PHI”) relating to abortion and other reproductive health care, as well as how individuals can protect their medical information on personal devices, menstruation tracking apps and other health-related apps.

On June 22, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission submitted an updated abstract to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs indicating that it is considering initiating a rulemaking under Section 18 of the FTC Act to curb lax security practices, limit privacy abuses, and ensure that algorithmic decision-making does not result in unlawful discrimination.

On June 21, 2022, President Biden signed into law, the State and Local Government Cybersecurity Act of 2021 (S. 2520) (the “Cybersecurity Act”) and the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act (S. 1097) (the “Cyber Workforce Program Act”), two bipartisan bills aimed at enhancing the cybersecurity postures of the federal, state and local governments.