June 2012

On June 7, 2012, the Article 29 Working Party, an independent advisory body composed of representatives from the national data protection authorities of the EU Member States, the European Data Protection Supervisor and the European Commission, issued Opinion 04/2012 regarding which types of cookies are exempted from the informed user-consent requirement under Directive 2002/58 of the European Parliament (the E-Privacy Directive).

 

Article 5.3 of the E-Privacy Directive requires that websites must obtain informed consent from users prior to storing cookies on users’ equipment.  The E-Privacy Directive provides for two exemptions to this rule: (a) when the cookie is used for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network; and (b) when the cookie is strictly necessary in order for the provider of an information society service explicitly requested by the user to provide the service.

On May 28th, the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (“CNIL”), the French  authority responsible for data privacy, published guidance on breach notification law affecting electronic communications service providers.   The guidance was issued with reference to European Directive 2002/58/EC, the e-Privacy Directive, which imposes specific breach notification requirements on electronic communication service providers.

French legislator recently amended Article 34 of the Data Protection Act to reflect the EU e-Privacy Directive’s breach notification requirement.According to Article 34 of the French data protection law (as revised), the notification obligations are applicable if:

  • Personal data is processed;
  • By an electronic communications service provider;
  • During the course of its business of providing electronic communications services (e.g. telephone service or internet access)

On May 8th, Vermont became the most recent state to amend its security breach notification law. Among the many changes, companies that are affected by a data breach are now required to notify the Attorney General of Vermont within 45 days after the discovery or notification of the breach.

Following a two year investigation by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”), a local Massachusetts hospital has agreed to pay $775,000 to resolve allegations that it failed to protect the personal and confidential health information of more than 800,000 consumers. The investigation and settlement resulted from a data breach disclosed by South Shore Hospital in 2010, where the information disclosed included individuals’ names, Social Security numbers, financial account numbers and medical diagnoses.