A representative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has recently revealed that OCR has delayed the start of phase 2 of its HIPAA Audit Program – and has revised its plans for phase 2. Previous Plans for Phase 2 Earlier this year, OCR had announced that phase […]
Legislation
Delaware Passes Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act
On August 12, Delaware Governor Jack Markell enacted the nation’s first law that covers access to digital accounts of the deceased. The Delaware statute, which is modeled after the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, gives the deceased’s executors, or fiduciaries, “control over any and all rights in digital assets and digital accounts of […]
LabMD Wins Discovery Disputes Against FTC; FTC Compelled to Disclose Data Security Standards
In the latest chapter of the ongoing battle between the FTC and LabMD, Inc. (“LabMD”) about the FTC’s claim that LabMD violated the FTC Act’s Section 5 bar on “unfair” acts or practices because of its allegedly inadequate data security practices, an administrative law judge overseeing the FTC’s administrative action against LabMD recently issued two […]
Iowa Updates Data Breach Notification Law to Add Paper Records, AG Notice Requirement
Iowa Governor Terry Brandstad has signed Senate File 2259, an act modifying provisions applicable to personal information security breach notification requirements. Iowa’s law will now require notice of breaches of unauthorized acquisition of information that is on paper (in addition to computerized data) and to require notice to the consumer protection division of the state […]
District Court Denies Wyndham Motion to Dismiss and Supports FTC’s Authority in Data Breach Cases
In Federal Trade Commission v. Wyndham Worldwide Corp., et al., No. 13-cv-01887-ES-JAD (D.N.J. Apr. 7, 2014), Judge Esther Salas of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey denied Wyndham’s request for dismissal of the FTC’s lawsuit against the hotel resort chain as a result of getting hacked.* Wyndham had challenged the FTC’s […]