Reports of sophisticated cyberattacks and ransomware threats dominated 2021 headlines, along with evolving state data privacy laws in the absence of comprehensive federal data protection regulation. Cross-border data transfers between the EU and US still lack a clear, streamlined mechanism while national authorities continue to negotiate an EU-US Privacy Shield

Google recently settled charges by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that Google’s social networking service, Buzz, violated the FTC Act. The FTC-Google settlement prohibits Google from misrepresenting the extent to which it maintains and protects the confidentiality of users’ information and from misrepresenting its compliance with the US-EU Safe Harbor Framework. In that regard, the settlement represents two important “firsts” in FTC enforcement.

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced today that, for the third time, it will delay enforcement of the Red Flags Rule until November 1, 2009 – a year after the original November 1, 2008 compliance deadline. In delaying enforcement yet again, the Commission stated that it intends to engage in an “expanded business education campaign” in which the staff will “redouble its efforts to educate [businesses] about compliance.” Such a campaign is designed to “clarify whether businesses are covered by the Rule and what they must do to comply.” The delay does not affect companies subject to the enforcement authority of federal agencies other than the FTC.