Privacy, Cyber & Data Strategy Team

Since November 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through its Office for Civil Rights (OCR), has been conducting audits of covered entities (the “HIPAA Audit Program”) for compliance with the privacy and security requirements under HIPAA and the HITECH Act (collectively, the “Privacy & Security Rules”). While the Internal Revenue Service […]

The United States Supreme Court Rules that Certain GPS Surveillance Constitutes a Search under the Fourth Amendment The United States Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v. Jones, 132 S. Ct. 945 (2012), reveals deep fractures in the Court’s Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Although all members of the Court upheld the D.C. Circuit’s decision that a Fourth […]

On February 22, 2012, California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced an agreement with the operators of the six major “app stores” to provide consumers an opportunity to review an app’s privacy policy before downloading the app. The deal with six companies, Amazon, Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Research in Motion requires the app stores to […]

It is being widely reported that the HIPAA/HITECH Act Omnibus Final Rule will be issued in March 2012. This omnibus rule is expected to include: A final breach notification rule. A final HIPAA Enforcement Rule, implementing changes mandated by the HITECH Act. A final rule implementing changes in the Privacy and Security Rules mandated by […]

The European Commission has released its final draft proposal for comprehensive reform of data protection standards in the European Union. This draft of a proposed new General Data Protection Regulation (the “Regulation”) is largely consistent with the earlier draft that was the subject of a post on this blog dated December 5, 2011. But there are […]