Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On June 12, 2017, a putative class action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia against Tempur Sealy International, Inc. and Aptos, Inc. Tempur Sealy is a mattress, bedding and pillow retailer based in Lexington, Kentucky. Aptos is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and formerly hosted and maintained Tempur Sealy’s website and online payment system. The plaintiff alleges that the breach was discovered in November of 2016 and involved the exposure of payment card data and other PII of an undisclosed number of Tempur Sealy customers.   

Recently, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia dismissed a shareholder derivative lawsuit against Home Depot Inc. (“Home Depot”) arising over claims that Home Depot’s directors and officers (the “Defendants”) acted in bad faith and violated their duties of care and loyalty by disregarding their oversight duties in connection with a 2014 data breach. The case is In re Home Depot Inc. S’holder Derivative Litig., N.D. Ga., No. 1:15-CV-2999-TWT.

On November 17, 2015, two plaintiffs filed a putative class action alleging that Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brian Kemp, improperly disclosed the Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and birth dates of more than 6.1 million Georgia voters. The lawsuit alleges that the Secretary violated Georgia’s Personal Identity Protection Act by disclosing the voters’ personally identifiable information, failing to provide voters notice of the breach and failing to notify consumer reporting agencies.

On October 26, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission finalized its settlement agreements with two businesses that allegedly exposed thousands of customers’ sensitive personal information by allowing peer-to-peer (“P2P”) file-sharing software to be installed on the companies’ computer systems. The approved settlements prohibit Georgia auto dealer Franklin’s Budget Car Sales, Inc. (“Franklin”) and Utah-based debt collector EPN, Inc. (“EPN”) from misrepresenting their privacy and information security practices and requires both businesses to establish and maintain a comprehensive information security program subject to biennial, independent, third-party audits for 20 years. The settlement with Franklin also bars the company from violating the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) Safeguards Rule and Privacy Rule.

On June 7, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission announced settlement agreements with two businesses that allegedly exposed customers’ sensitive personal information by allowing peer-to-peer (“P2P”) file-sharing software to be installed on their company computers and networks.

In its complaint against Franklin’s Budget Car Sales (“Franklin”), a Georgia automobile dealership that also provides financing services to its customers, the FTC alleged that Franklin failed to implement reasonable security measures to protect the consumer personal information that Franklin routinely collects in connection with its business. The FTC claimed that personal information of approximately 95,000 customers, including names, Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and drivers’ license numbers were made available and disclosed by a P2P application installed on a computer that was connected to Franklin’s computer network. In addition to alleging violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act, the FTC also claimed that Franklin violated the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (“GLB”). This is the first FTC case against an auto dealer involving GLB violations. The FTC stated in its complaint that Franklin failed to implement reasonable security policies and procedures in violation of the GLB Safeguards Rule, and also failed to send consumers annual privacy notices and to provide the required opt-out mechanisms in violation of the GLB Privacy Rule.