Compliance Now

The Washington State Senate passed SB 5376, the Washington Privacy Act (WPA), by a 46-1 vote.  The bill now moves to the State’s House of Representatives for consideration. The bill is poised to be perhaps the strictest data privacy law in the United States, mimicking the European Union’s General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) in many [...]

State attorneys general are stepping into the consumer complaint and education arena boldly with their new national website. The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) and its Center for Consumer Protection recently launched a comprehensive consumer-focused website. The site is designed to be a national hub of consumer protection information and resources for consumers from state [...]

The new governor of Illinois has wisely chosen former Illinois Attorney General Consumer Protection Chief Deborah Hagan as Secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation. Hagan, a 36-year veteran of the Illinois Attorney General’s office, headed up the Consumer Protection division at the office. She specialized in areas including mortgage protections, student [...]

The State of Washington has officially joined the national conversation on data privacy regulation. On January 17, 2019, the Washington Senate proposed SB 5376, the Washington Privacy Act (WPA), which would impose responsibilities on companies to protect the privacy of “personal data.” The bill’s substantive provisions closely mirror those found in the European Union’s General [...]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has completed its review of the CAN-SPAM Rule and concluded by a vote of 5-0 that the rule should be retained with no changes or modification. What is the CAN-SPAM Rule? The CAN-SPAM Rule was adopted in 2008 and requires companies that send unsolicited marketing emails to identify these message [...]

On February 11, 2019, a coalition of 31 state attorneys general sent a letter to the FTC urging the Commission to retain its “Identity Theft Rules,” also referred to as the “Red Flag Rules.” Led by Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum, the letter further requests the FTC update the Rules in light of technological advancements and [...]

Twelve state attorneys general recently joined forces to file the first-ever multistate data breach lawsuit. In 2015, Medical Informatics Engineering and its subsidiary, NoMoreClipboard (collectively “MIE”), announced that its systems had been hacked and the information of about 3.9 million patients had been compromised. The stolen information included not only individual names, addresses, and Social [...]

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) recently introduced the American Data Dissemination Act (“ADD”), which targets businesses that collect personal data through the internet. Considering the lack of federal regulation in this area, a federal bill has been anticipated for some time. The ADD is largely seen as a response to California’s Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), [...]

Funding for a portion of the federal government expired on December 21, 2018, beginning a partial federal government shutdown. As the shutdown continues into its fourth week, businesses and consumers alike are feeling the effects in a big way. Here’s how services are being impacted at three key regulatory agencies. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) [...]