FTC’s first-ever settlement for violation of children’s privacy through connected toys

Posted on by Federica Romanelli
FTC announced that VTech Electronics Limited and its US subsidiary (VTech) agreed to settle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a claim that the companies violated children’s privacy through the commercialization of some connected toys. Allegedly VTech violated COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998) by collecting personal information from children without providing direct notice to their parents and without obtaining their consent. They also failed to take reasonable Read more [...]

Deceased Floridians maintain their Constitutional right to privacy

Posted on by Federica Romanelli
In this constitutional challenge to the 2013 amendments to sections 766.106 and 766.1065 of the Florida Statutes requiring claimants in a medical malpractice claim to disclose certain protected health information (PHI) and to consent to secret, ex parte interviews between health providers and defendant , the Florida Supreme Court held that the requirements were unconstitutional and that the right of privacy is not lost at death. The ruling concerned a medical malpractice claim brought by a Read more [...]

SCOTUS heard oral argument in Carpenter vs US: can the Gov’t access carriers’ location data without a warrant?

Posted on by Federica Romanelli
On November 29, 2017, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in an important privacy case. The Sixth Circuit held that the protection granted under the Fourth Amendment did not prevent the government to access business records from the defendants’ wireless carriers revealing the user’s location without a warrant. In Carpenter v. United States Timothy Carpenter and Timothy Sanders were convicted of nine armed robberies. The government’s evidence at trial included business records from Read more [...]

U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether Gov’t can force service providers to surrender information stored abroad

Posted on by Federica Romanelli
On October 16, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the U.S. government’s request to review a previous appeals court ruling in favor of Microsoft, preserving service providers from surrendering information stored abroad. The U.S.’s highest court had to decide if companies have a right to refuse to comply with data disclosure demands made by the US government. Specifically, the Supreme Court had to decide “whether a United States provider of email services must comply with a probable-cause-based Read more [...]

Home Depot to settle financial institution class against 2014’s data breach

Posted on by Federica Romanelli
On March 8, 2017, Home Depot Inc. (Home Depot) reached an agreement that, if approved, will bring the putative class action, brought by certain financial institutions impacted by the company’s 2014 data breach, to an end. In September 2014, Home Depot announced that its payment data systems had been breached. See here. Investigation revealed hackers placed malware on Home Depot’s self-checkout kiosks in stores across the country, allowing them to steal customers’ personal financial information. Read more [...]