Winston & Strawn: Privacy Law News Client Bulletin

These articles originally appeared in our Privacy Law Corner blog between March 8, 2012 and June 18, 2012.

Text Message Lawsuits Continue in California
While one class action lawsuit is settling in California for $49,100 against a group of car dealerships, another has been filed against the...

FCC Publishes Final Robocall Rule, Impacts Text as Well
The Federal Communications Commission published yesterday in the Federal Register its final rule on auto-dialed and pre-recorded calls under the...

Motion to Dismiss TCPA Claims Against Adult Club Denied
An adult club called The Playhouse, owned by B&B Entertainment, was accused of sending unsolicited text messages to potential customers...

Calling Reassigned Cell Numbers Likely Violates TCPA
The Seventh Circuit recently declined to dismiss a lawsuit against a debt collector that repeatedly called individuals who had inherited...

Marketing Company Agrees to Stop Spamming Facebook Users
The Washington Attorney General recently entered into a consent decree with Adscend Media LLC prohibiting the online marketing company from sending...

FCC Seeking Comment on Whether Confirmation Text to Opt-Out Request Violates TCPA
As we have written in the past, several companies have been sued recently for allegedly violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act...

Payless Shoes Settles Text Message Class Action Lawsuit
Payless recently settled claims that it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by allegedly sending thousands of text message ads...

Vicarious Liability for Sending Texts Possible
A group of plaintiffs allege that they received unauthorized Jiffy Lube text messages from Heartland...

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FTC Settles Charges Over Exposure of Consumers’ Sensitive Personal Information
The FTC recently announced that it settled charges with two businesses for exposing sensitive personal information of thousands of consumers through use of...

Massachusetts Issues First Annual Report On Data Breaches
The Massachusetts Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation office recently issued its first annual report on data breach notifications...

Stolen Laptop Results in $15,000 Fine In Massachusetts
Maloney Properties Inc., a Massachusetts property management company, recently agreed to pay $15,000 in civil penalties after an employee’s laptop, containing...

FTC Settles Security Case for $250,000 in Civil Penalties
RockYou, a website that lets users create and share photo slideshows, has settled FTC allegations that it failed to provide adequate security...

NIST’s Cloud Computing Privacy Guidelines a Useful Tool
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, has issued a new Guidelines on Security and Privacy...

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Seventh Circuit Holds Company Can Print Credit Card’s Middle Digits on Receipt
The Seventh Circuit recently held that Shell Oil had not violated the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) by printing on sales receipts the middle four...

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Cardiology Practice Settles Alleged HIPAA Violations with Payment of $100,000
Under a settlement agreement with the federal government, a cardiology practice in Arizona has agreed to pay $100,000 and implement a corrective actions plan...

Tennessee Health Plan Pays $1.5 Million for Data Security Problems
The Tennessee BlueCross BlueShield health insurance plan suffered a data breach in 2009, and as required by the HITECH Breach Notice law, submitted a report...

Class Action for Allegedly Selling Personal Prescription Data Dismissed
A class action lawsuit filed against a major pharmacy for allegedly misusing prescription information...

Clinic Found Not Liable for Employee’s Disclosure of Patient Health Information
A New York medical clinic was sued for breach of confidentiality and other torts after an employee disclosed a patient’s confidential health information to the...

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EU Refers Five Countries for Failure to Implement Cookie Directive
Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Solvenia have been referred to the European Court of Justice for failing to enact national legislation...

French Data Protection Authority Announces Audit Priorities
The French data protection authority (CNIL) recently announced that this year it will conduct 450 investigations, focusing on current privacy developments...

Spain Data Breach Law Goes Into Effect, Cookie Consent Requirement Also Updated
Spain has recently amended its privacy laws to require notice when there has been a breach of electronic networks...

Global Mobile App Privacy Guidelines Released
The GSM Association, which represents mobile carriers worldwide and is headquartered in London, has released guidelines to help mobile app...

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New Jersey AG Sues Children’s App Developer for COPPA Violations
New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa recently announced that his office has filed suit...

Class Action to Proceed in Arkansas for Improper Access of DMV Data
An Arkansas court recently certified a class action lawsuit against several companies that purchased the entire Arkansas motor vehicle records database and used...

FTC Updates Privacy Rules Review Schedule
Last year the FTC increased the frequency with which it reviews the regulations...

Facebook Sued In Class Action Over Purchases By Minors
A class action lawsuit recently filed against Facebook alleges that the company illegally profited off of purchases made by minors...

MySpace Settles FTC Charges of Sharing Information with Advertisers
The MySpace privacy policy indicates, according to the FTC, that a users’ personally identifiable information will not be shared for purposes inconsistent with...

Enforcement for Failure to Have Mobile Privacy Policies May Begin This Fall
As we reported in February, all of the major app platforms agreed with the California Attorney General that they would require apps sold through their platforms...

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Washington Court Dismisses Two Claims Against Amazon in Cookie Dispute
A federal court in Washington state recently dismissed two claims against Amazon.com for allegedly violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”)...

Self-Regulatory Program Issues Seven OBA Decisions
The Digital Advertising Alliance’s Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising includes an enforcement arm, the Online Interest-Based...

Court Continues Lawsuit Over iPhone and iPad Personal Data Collection
Apple continues to face a putative class action lawsuit over its collection of personal data from iPhone and iPad users after a federal judge in California denied...

Amended Class Action Lawsuit Against Facebook Seeks $1.5 Trillion
Plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against Facebook recently filed an amended complaint seeking $1.5 trillion in statutory damages under the Wiretap Act...

FTC Recommends Targeted Data Tracking Legislation and Self-Regulatory Codes
On March 26, the FTC released a final report with a framework for consumer privacy. The framework and report has recommendations to lawmakers...

Mobile Application Makers Accused of Harvesting Address Book Data
A complaint filed recently in Texas accuses many well-known mobile application makers (like Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and many others)...

Have You Read the Canadian OBA Guidance?
Late last year the Canadian Privacy Commissioner issued online behavioral advertising guidelines, that in many ways mirrors the self-regulatory program...

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Text Message Lawsuits Continue in California
While one class action lawsuit is settling in California for $49,100 against a group of car dealerships...

D.C. Circuit Says Firing Employee Who Secretly Records Meeting is an Unfair Labor Practice
On April 20, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) ruling that an employer...

Employer Requests for Social Networking Passwords of Job Applicants May Lead to Liability
Recently, a maelstrom of publicity arose over a Maryland public agency’s practice of asking job applicants to disclose their Facebook...

Employer Who Believed Employee Was Suicidal May Be Liable Under the Americans with Disabilities Act
In a recent case out of Washington state, a court allowed an employee’s Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) claim to continue even though the employer...

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