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Despite recent indications from HHS and the Director of HHS’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that the HIPAA/HITECH Act Omnibus Final Rule is extremely close to publication, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has extended its review of the rule under Executive Order 12866. As we recently commented, in a report published […]

In what appears to be a growing trend, Vermont and Connecticut have added a requirement to separately notify the states’ Attorney General’s office of a data breach involving the personal information of Vermont and Connecticut residents. Last year, California amended its data breach notification statute with a similar requirement.   Vermont’s amended Security Breach Notification […]

In March, we reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had submitted the HIPAA/HITECH Act Omnibus Final Rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review under Executive Order 12866, and that OMB had up to 90 days to review the rule under the Executive Order. In HHS’s May 2012 […]

On May 23, Illinois followed in Maryland’s footsteps to become the second state to pass a law prohibiting employers from asking employees or job applicants for their passwords to social networking websites. Although the Illinois governor must still approve the legislation before it goes into effect, approval seems imminent given the Illinois Senate’s unanimous passage […]

Today the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing entitled “The Need for Privacy Protections: Perspectives from the Administration and the Federal Trade Commission.” The hearing examined the need for privacy legislation and the recent privacy reports from the White House and the Federal Trade Commission. Testifying on behalf of the federal government were […]