On April 7, 2011, the SEC announced that it had imposed fines of $20,000 each against the former president of a broker-dealer and a former broker for their actions in transferring customer information to a new firm as the defunct firm wound down. The SEC also fined the brokerage firm’s former chief compliance officer $15,000 for compliance failures and security breaches that took place at the defunct firm, some dating back to 2005. Visit our blog to learn more.
privacy
International Cellular Network Industry Association Releases Privacy Principles
By Andrew Hoffman on
Hot on the trail of the FTC’s recent report on privacy, the GSMA, the London-based industry association representing over 800 cellular network operators worldwide, released its “high-level” Mobile Privacy Principles (the “Principles”) on January 27, 2011.
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Please Ignore the Intrusion, We Just Have a Few Questions to Ask: Supreme Court Validates Background Checks for Government Contractors
By Proskauer Rose on
On January 19, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the federal government has broad latitude to conduct background checks on contractors who work at government facilities. Assuming, without deciding, that two parts of a standard government employment background investigation implicated a constitutional privacy interest, the Court held that the government is permitted to ask reasonable employment-related questions that further the government’s interests in managing its internal operations, particularly where the results of such investigations are adequately protected from public disclosure.
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What Do You Really Need to Know About the FTC’s Recent Report on Privacy?
By Kristen J. Mathews on
Yesterday, we blogged about the FTC’s report released last week, “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change.” But if the FTC’s recommendations become requirements, how would they change what the typical company is doing today?
Massachusetts Data Security Regulations: Your Company May Not Be Located There, But If Your Customers Are, You Need to Comply
By Natalie Newman on
As we’ve discussed in prior posts, newly effective regulations promulgated under Massachusetts’ recent data security law, Mass. Gen. Law ch. 93H, have raised the bar for data security compliance, and they have a long reach. The regulations are national and international in scope, as they apply to all companies –…
Netflix Sued for “Largest Voluntary Privacy Breach To Date”
By Natalie Newman on
On December 17, 2009, a class action suit was filed against online movie rental giant, Netflix, Inc., in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Plaintiffs in Doe v. Netflix are claiming that Netflix has “perpetrated the largest voluntary privacy breach to date.”
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Special Radio Report: Oncidi Talks Privacy in the Workplace
By Proskauer Rose on
There is an inherent tension between an employee’s right to privacy and an employer’s right — and obligation — to maintain a safe, productive, and hostility free environment at the office.
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Flash Cookies — Back on the Radar
By S. Montaye Sigmon on
When Flash cookies (also known as a “Local Shared Objects”) were first flagged as a privacy issue back in 2005, a few savvy companies added a disclosure about Flash cookies into their web site privacy policies. Since then, we have not heard the issue raised again. Now this sleeper issue seems to have been awakened by a recent report by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, entitled Flash Cookies and Privacy.
Flash cookies, which utilize a little-known capability of Adobe’s Flash plug-in, are a method to store information about a user’s preferences. (Estimates suggest that Adobe’s Flash software is installed on some 98 percent of personal computers.) Flash cookies may be used to provide better functionality to the user by, for example, storing the user’s preferences about sound volume or caching a music file for smoother play-back over an unreliable network connection. Flash cookies may also be used as unique identifiers that enable advertisers to track user preferences and circumvent deletion of HTTP cookies. Because Flash cookies are stored in a different location than HTTP cookies on one’s personal computer, simply erasing HTTP cookies, clearing browser history, or deleting the cache does not remove Flash cookies.