Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On October 16, 2024, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) issued an Industry Letter warning companies to update their AI security procedures around multifactor authentication, which are potentially vulnerable to deepfakes and AI-supplemented social engineering attacks.

On September 24, 2024, a federal district court held that New York City’s Customer Data Law violates the First Amendment.

On August 1, 2024, the Office of the New York State Attorney General released two Advanced Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (“ANPRM”) for the SAFE for Kids Act and the Child Data Protection Act.

On July 30, 2024, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the Office of the AG’s publication of two privacy guides, one for businesses and one for consumers, both focused on the use of website tracking technologies.

On June 20, 2024, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law Senate Bill S7694, the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (“SAFE”) for Kids Act. The Act is the first of its kind to regulate the provision of addictive social media feeds to minors.

On June 7, 2024, the New York legislature passed a bill (S.B. S7694A), the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, addressing children’s use of social media platforms. The bill is pending Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature.

On February 13, 2024, New York Attorney General (“NY AG”) Letitia James and New York State Education Department Commissioner (“NYSED”) Betty A. Rosa announced that College Board has agreed to settle charges in connection with allegations that it violated New York Education Law § 2-d, New York’s student privacy law. 

On January 12, 2024, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) announced a consent order with virtual currency company Genesis Global Trading, Inc. (“Genesis”) for “significant” failings in Genesis’ Anti-Money Laundering and cybersecurity compliance frameworks. According to the NYDFS, Genesis’ failure to comply with the NYDFS’ virtual currency and cybersecurity regulations left the company vulnerable to cybersecurity risks and related unlawful activity. 

On November 28, 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) announced that First American Title Insurance Company (“First American”), the second-largest title insurance company in the United States, would pay a $1 million penalty for violations of the NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulation in connection with a 2019 data breach. The NYDFS investigated the company’s response to the data breach and alleged that First American knew of a vulnerability in its technical systems that exposed consumers’ non-public information, but failed to investigate or ...

On November 1, 2023, New York Governor Hochul announced that the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) amended its Cybersecurity Regulation applicable to covered financial institutions. Our previous blog post covered key proposed changes to the Cyber Regulation.

The NYDFS, which regulates financial institutions including insurance companies, mortgage brokers and banks, adopted the original Cybersecurity Regulation in 2017. The new amendments strengthen the initial framework and require NYDFS-regulated entities to adhere to a number of ...

On June 28, 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) published an updated proposed Second Amendment (“Amendment”) to its Cybersecurity Regulation, 23 NYCRR Part 500. On November 9, 2022, NYDFS published a first draft of the proposed Amendment and received comments from stakeholders over a 60-day period. The updated proposed Amendment will be subject to an additional 45-day comment period.

On June 2, 2023, Judge Brantley Starr of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas released what appears to be the first standing order regulating use of generative artificial intelligence (“AI”)—which has recently emerged as a powerful tool on many fronts—in court filings. Generative AI provides capabilities for ease of research, drafting, image creation and more. But along with this new technology comes the opportunity for abuse, and the legal system is taking notice.

On May 3, 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law fiscal bill A.3007C/S.4007, which contains provisions prohibiting the establishment of a geofence around health care facilities.

On May 5, 2023, New York Attorney General Letitia James released proposed legislation that seeks to regulate all facets of the cryptocurrency industry. Entitled the “Crypto Regulation, Protection, Transparency, and Oversight (CRPTO) Act,” if enacted the bill would substantially expand New York’s oversight of crypto enterprises conducting business in the Empire State, including as to matters involving privacy and cybersecurity.

On April 6, 2023, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection ("DCWP") announced it adopted final rules to implement NYC’s Local Law 144 (“LL 144”) regarding automated employment decision tools (“AEDTs”). Enforcement of the law and the rules will begin on July 5, 2023.

On March 27, 2023, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that a New York-based law firm (Heidell, Pittoni, Murphy & Bach LLP) had agreed to pay $200,000 in penalties and enhance its cybersecurity practices to settle charges stemming from a 2021 data breach. 

As previously posted in our Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives blog, on January 10, 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published a draft of its Strategic Enforcement Plan (“SEP”) in the Federal Register, which outlines the EEOC’s enforcement goals for the next four years. While the EEOC aims to target a number of new areas – such as underserved workers and pregnancy fairness in the workplace – it is notable that it listed as priority number one the elimination of barriers in recruitment and hiring caused or exacerbated by employers’ use of artificial intelligence (“AI”). 

On January 25, 2023, Hunton Andrews Kurth’s retail industry team released its annual Retail Industry in Review publication, which provides an overview of key issues and trends that impacted the retail sector in the past year, as well as a preview of relevant legal issues retailers can expect to arise in 2023. This year’s publication highlights key topics including cyber insurance, cybersecurity and privacy accountability, M&A activity, regulation and litigation related to PFAS, labor organizing, developments in ESG disclosure and more.

On December 31, 2022, Baltimore’s ordinance banning the private sector’s use of facial recognition technology expired. The ordinance, which was enacted in 2021, banned private entities and individuals within the city limits from using facial recognition technology, including obtaining, retaining, accessing or using a “face surveillance system” or any information obtained from such system. The Baltimore ordinance followed a similar ban on the use of facial recognition technology by private sector companies in Portland, Oregon, enacted in 2020. New York City also passed an ordinance in 2021 regulating commercial establishments’ use of biometric technology.

On November 9, 2022, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) released its second, proposed amendments to the Part 500 Cybersecurity Rule. The proposed amendments revise several aspects of the draft Cybersecurity Rule amendments released on July 29, 2022. These changes reflect several comments made in response to the draft Cybersecurity Rule to further clarify, strengthen and clarify various requirements, as highlighted below.

On October 24, 2022, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (“DCWP”) proposed rules to implement its new law regarding automated employment decision tools (“AEDTs”).

On September 23, 2022, New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes introduced S9563, also known as the “New York Child Data Privacy and Protection Act.” The bill, which resembles the recently passed California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, bans certain data collection and targeted advertising and requires data controllers to, among other obligations, assess the impact of their products on children.

On October 18, 2022, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) announced that EyeMed Vision Care LLC (“EyeMed”) agreed to a $4.5 million settlement for violations of the Cybersecurity Regulation (23 NYCRR Part 500) that contributed to the exposure of hundreds of thousands of consumers’ health data in connection with a cybersecurity event in 2020.

On October 12, 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that her office had secured a $1.9 million penalty from e-commerce retailer Zoetop, owner of SHEIN and ROMWE, following an improperly handled data breach. The Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York (“NYAG”) alleged in its Assurance of Discontinuance that Zoetop failed to properly handle the breach and lied about its scope to consumers.

On June 10, 2022, New York became the first state to require attorneys to complete at least one credit of cybersecurity, privacy and data protection training as part of their continuing legal education (“CLE”) requirements. The new requirement will take effect July 1, 2023.

On July 29, 2022, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) posted proposed amendments (“Proposed Amendments”) to its Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial Services Companies (“Cybersecurity Regulations”). The Proposed Amendments would expand upon the set of prescriptive cybersecurity requirements applicable to all covered financial institutions, as well as impose more stringent requirements for “Class A Companies” (as defined below). There will be a brief pre-proposal comment period, followed by the official publication of the Proposed Amendments, which will trigger a new 60-day comment period. Below are the key changes introduced by the Proposed Amendments.

On June 30, 2022, the New York Office of the Attorney General (“NYOAG”) announced a $400,000 agreement with Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. (“Wegmans”) in connection with a cloud storage security issue. The NYOAG alleges that Wegmans exposed the personal information of three million consumers by storing the data in misconfigured cloud storage containers.

On June 30, 2022, the Cyberspace Administration of China (the “CAC”) issued a draft Provision on the Standard Contract for Cross-border Transfer of Personal Information (“Draft Provisions”) and a draft of the Standard Contract for Cross-border Transfer of Personal Information (“Standard Contract”) for public comments. Per Article 38 of the Personal Information Protection Law (“PIPL”), if the data handler is not required to conduct a government security assessment, it may choose either to conduct certification by a qualified third institution or to execute the Standard Contract for cross-border transfer of personal information. Certification might be more commonly used for cross-border transfer within a group, whereas the Standard Contract may be more popular under other scenarios of cross-border transfers.

On June 24, 2022, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS” or the “Department”) announced it had entered into a $5 million settlement with Carnival Corp. (“Carnival”), the world’s largest cruise-ship operator, for violations of the Cybersecurity Regulation (23 NYCRR Part 500) in connection with four cybersecurity events between 2019 and 2021, including two ransomware events.  

On April 5, 2022, North Carolina became the first state in the U.S. to prohibit state agencies and local government entities from paying a ransom following a ransomware attack.

North Carolina’s new law, which was passed as part of the state’s 2021-2022 budget appropriations, prohibits government entities from paying a ransom to an attacker who has encrypted their IT systems and subsequently offers to decrypt that data in exchange for payment. The law prohibits government entities from even communicating with the attacker, instead directing them to report the ransomware attack to the North Carolina Department of Information Technology in accordance with G.S. 143B‑1379.

On February 14, 2022, Noom Inc., a popular weight loss and fitness app, agreed to pay $56 million, and provide an additional $6 million in subscription credits to settle a putative class action in New York federal court. The class is seeking conditional certification and has urged the court to preliminarily approve the settlement.

On January 5, 2022, the New York Office of the Attorney General (“NY AG”) announced the results of an investigation into “credential stuffing,” which uncovered 1.1 million compromised accounts from cyberattacks on 17 well-known companies. The announcement included a “Business Guide for Credential Stuffing Attacks,” (the “Guide”) detailing the attacks and providing tips for businesses to protect themselves.

On November 10, 2021, the New York City Council passed a bill prohibiting employers and employment agencies from using automated employment decision tools to screen candidates or employees, unless a bias audit has been conducted prior to deploying the tool (the “Bill”).

On November 8, 2021, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law A.430/S.2628 (the “Act”), which requires private employers with a place of business in New York State to provide their employees prior written notice, upon hiring, of any electronic monitoring, as defined in the Act, to which the employees will be subjected by the employer.

As reported on the Hunton Retail Resource Blog, on October 20, 2021, a new wave in the fight against “robocalls” is targeting telemarketing text messages. In the past six months, there has been an uptick in activity at both the state and federal level to reign in telemarketing text messages.

On October 12, 2021, New Jersey Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck and the Division of Consumer Affairs announced a settlement with Diamond Institute for Infertility and Menopause, LLC, over a data breach that compromised the personal information of 14,663 patients, including 11,071 New Jersey residents. The Division of Consumer Affairs alleged that the fertility clinic violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (“HIPAA”) Privacy and Security Rules by removing protected health information (“PHI”) safeguards.

On August 29, 2021, a New York City Council bill amending the New York City Administrative Code to address customer data collected by food delivery services from online orders became law after the 30-day period for the mayor to sign or veto lapsed. Effective December 27, 2021, the law will permit restaurants to request customer data from third-party food delivery services and require delivery services to provide, on at least a monthly basis, such customer data until the restaurant “requests to no longer receive such customer data.” Customer data includes name, phone number, email address, delivery address and contents of the order.

On June 30, 2021, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS,” the “Department”) issued guidance to all New York state regulated entities on ransomware (the “Guidance”), identifying controls it expects regulated companies to implement whenever possible.

On May 18, 2021, New York Attorney General (“AG”) Letitia James announced a settlement agreement with Filters Fast LLC (“Filters Fast”) over a data breach that compromised personal information of approximately 324,000 consumers nationwide, including over 16,500 New York state residents. The breach affected purchases made on Filters Fast website for almost a year – from July 16, 2019 to July 10, 2020.

On April 29, 2021, the New York City Council passed the Tenant Data Privacy Act (“TDPA”), which would regulate the collection, use, safeguarding and retention of tenant data by owners of “smart access” buildings. The TDPA has been sent to the New York City Mayor’s desk for signature.

On March 3, 2020, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) announced it had entered into a settlement with Residential Mortgage Services, Inc. (“RMS”) related to allegations that RMS violated the NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulation in connection with a 2019 data breach.

As reported on the Hunton Insurance Recovery blog, on February 4, 2021, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”), which regulates the business of insurance in New York, has issued guidelines, in the Insurance Circular Letter No. 2 (2021) regarding “Cyber Insurance Risk Framework” (the “Guidelines”), calling on insurers to take more stringent measures in underwriting cyber risks. In the Guidelines, NYDFS cites the 2020 SolarWinds attack as an example of how managing growing cyber risk is “an urgent challenge for insurers.”

On February 16, 2021, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) issued a Cyber Fraud Alert (the “Alert”) to regulated entities in light of a growing campaign to steal Nonpublic Information (“NPI”), as defined under New York law, from public-facing websites that provide instant quotes for products like auto insurance (“Instant Quote Websites”).

On January 10, 2021, New York City enacted a new biometrics ordinance that regulates the commercial use and sale of biometric identifier information.

On December 22, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law legislation that temporarily bans the use or purchase of facial recognition and other biometric identifying technology in public and private schools until at least July 1, 2022. The legislation also directs the New York Commissioner of Education (the “Commissioner”) to conduct a study on whether this technology is appropriate for use in schools.

On November 24, 2020, a multistate coalition of Attorneys General announced that The Home Depot, Inc. (“Home Depot”) agreed to pay $17.5 million and implement a series of data security practices in response to a data breach the company experienced in 2014. The $17.5 million payment will be divided among the 46 participating states and the District of Colombia. We previously reported on a settlement Home Depot reached in 2017 to resolve a putative class action brought by financial institutions impacted by the 2014 data breach.

On Wednesday, July 22, the New York Department of Financial Services (the “NYDFS”) announced that it had filed administrative charges against First American Title Insurance Co. under the NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulation, marking the agency’s first enforcement action since the rules went into effect in March 2017.

As part of its regulatory review of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLB”) Safeguards Rule, the Federal Trade Commission will hold a workshop, Information Security and Financial Institutions: An FTC Workshop to Examine the Safeguards Rule. The workshop, originally scheduled for May, has been postponed until July 13, 2020.

On April 13, 2020, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) issued guidance (“April guidance”) to all New York State entities covered under NYDFS’s cybersecurity regulation regarding assessing and addressing heightened cybersecurity risks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In asking regulated entities to address risks “appropriately,” the April guidance references NYDFS’s earlier March 10, 2020 guidance calling on regulated institutions to submit to the agency (within 30 days of the guidance) plans “to address operational risks posed by the outbreak of a novel coronavirus,” including “assessment[s] of potential increased cyber-attacks and fraud.”

On March 21, 2020, the data security provisions of New York’s Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act (“SHIELD Act”) went into effect. The SHIELD Act requires any person or business owning or licensing computerized data that includes the private information of a resident of New York (“covered business”) to implement and maintain reasonable safeguards to protect the security, confidentiality and integrity of the private information.

On February 12, 2020, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced a plan to create a Data Protection Agency through her proposed legislation, the Data Protection Act of 2020. According to Senator Gillibrand, the purpose of the law is to create the new agency and bring the protection of privacy and freedom into the digital age.

On July 25, 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law Senate Bill S5575B (the “Bill”), an amendment to New York’s breach notification law (the “Act”). The Bill expands the Act’s definition of “breach of the security of the system” and the types of information (i.e., “private information”) covered by the Act, and makes certain changes to the Act’s requirements for breach notification.

On July 23, 2019, New York City Council members introduced Int. 1632-2019 (the “Bill”), an amendment to the administrative code of New York City that would prohibit telecommunications carriers and mobile applications from sharing a customer’s location data if such data was collected from a device in the five boroughs.

On March 5, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it is seeking comment on proposed changes to the FTC’s Safeguards Rule and Privacy Rule under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLB”).

The proposed amendments to the Safeguards Rule, which went into effect in 2003 and imposes data security obligations on financial institutions over which the Commission has jurisdiction, are based primarily on the cybersecurity regulations issued by the New York Department of Financial Services and the insurance data security model law issued by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The proposed changes would add more detailed requirements on how financial institutions must protect customer information.

On December 4, 2018, the New York Attorney General (“NY AG”) announced that Oath Inc., which was known as AOL Inc. (“AOL”) until June 2017 and is a subsidiary of Verizon Communications Inc., agreed to pay New York a $4.95 million civil penalty following allegations that it had violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) by collecting and disclosing children’s personal information in conducting online auctions for advertising placement. This is the largest-ever COPPA penalty.

On August 28, 2018, plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit against Nielsen Holdings PLC ("Nielsen") and some of its officers and directors for making allegedly materially false and misleading statements to investors about the impact of privacy regulations and third-party business partners’ privacy policies on the company’s revenues and earnings. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. 

As reported in BNA Privacy Law Watch, on June 27, 2018, Equifax entered into a consent order (the “Order”) with 8 state banking regulators (the “Multi-State Regulatory Agencies”), including those in New York and California, arising from the company’s 2017 data breach that exposed the personal information of 143 million consumers.

On June 25, 2018, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) issued a final regulation (the “Regulation”) requiring consumer reporting agencies with “significant operations” in New York to (1) register with NYDFS for the first time and (2) comply with the NYDFS’s cybersecurity regulation. Under the Regulation, consumer reporting agencies that reported on 1,000 or more New York consumers in the preceding year are subject to these requirements, and must register with NYDFS on or before September 1, 2018. The deadline for consumer reporting agencies to ...

On January 23, 2018, the New York Attorney General announced that Aetna Inc. (“Aetna”) agreed to pay $1.15 million and enhance its privacy practices following an investigation alleging it risked revealing the HIV status of 2,460 New York residents by mailing them information in transparent window envelopes. In July 2017, Aetna sent HIV patients information on how to fill their prescriptions using envelopes with large clear plastic windows, through which patient names, addresses, claims numbers and medication instructions were visible. Through this, the HIV status of some patients was visible to third parties. The letters were sent to notify members of a class action lawsuit that, pursuant to that suit’s resolution, they could purchase HIV medications at physical pharmacy locations, rather than via mail order delivery.

On January 22, 2018, the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) issued a press release reminding entities covered by its cybersecurity regulation that the first certification of compliance with the regulation is due on or prior to February 15, 2018. Covered entities must file the certification, which covers the 2017 calendar year, at the NYDFS online portal.

On December 11, 2017, Lisa Sotto, chair of Hunton & Williams LLP’s Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice, was one of 54 women in the legal profession honored at the New York County Lawyers Association’s (“NYCLA’s) 103rd annual dinner. “NYCLA has long been at the forefront of equality…At this year’s annual dinner, we are thrilled to honor the contributions of women lawyers and focus a spotlight on their accomplishments,” said NYCLA President Michael McNamara. Among the women honored were judges, prosecutors, district attorneys, general counsel, partners ...

On October 31, 2017, the New York and Vermont Attorneys General (“Attorneys General”) announced a settlement with Hilton Domestic Operating Company, Inc., formerly known as Hilton Worldwide, Inc. (“Hilton”), to settle allegations that the company lacked reasonable data security and waited too long to report a pair of 2015 data breaches, which exposed over 350,000 credit card numbers. The Attorneys General alleged that Hilton failed to maintain reasonable data security and waited more than nine months after the first incident to notify consumers of the breaches, in violation of the states' consumer protection and breach notification laws.

On June 12, 2017, a putative class action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia against Tempur Sealy International, Inc. and Aptos, Inc. Tempur Sealy is a mattress, bedding and pillow retailer based in Lexington, Kentucky. Aptos is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and formerly hosted and maintained Tempur Sealy’s website and online payment system. The plaintiff alleges that the breach was discovered in November of 2016 and involved the exposure of payment card data and other PII of an undisclosed number of Tempur Sealy customers.   

On May 22, 2017, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that the AG’s office has reached a settlement (the “Settlement”) with Safetech Products LLC (“Safetech”) regarding the company’s sale of insecure Bluetooth-enabled wireless doors and padlocks. In a press release, Schneiderman indicated that this “marks the first time an attorneys general’s office has taken legal action against a wireless security company for failing to protect their [customers’] personal and private information.”

On May 5, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a default judgment in favor of the SEC against three Chinese defendants accused of hacking into the nonpublic networks of two New York-headquartered law firms and stealing confidential information regarding several publicly traded companies engaged in mergers and acquisitions. The defendants allegedly profited illegally by trading the stolen nonpublic information. After the defendants failed to answer the SEC’s complaint, the court entered a default judgment against them, imposing a fine ...

Earlier this month, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) recently published FAQs and key dates for its cybersecurity regulation (the “NYDFS Regulation”) for financial institutions that became effective on March 1, 2017.

On April 19, 2017, the FTC announced that it is seeking public comment on proposed changes to TRUSTe, Inc.’s safe harbor program under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (the “Proposed Changes”). As we previously reported, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that TRUSTe agreed to settle allegations that it failed to properly verify that customer websites aimed at children did not run third-party software to track users. The Proposed Changes are a result of the settlement agreement between TRUSTe and the New York Attorney General.

On April 6, 2017, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that privacy compliance company TRUSTe, Inc., agreed to settle allegations that it failed to properly verify that customer websites aimed at children did not run third-party software to track users. According to Attorney General Schneiderman, the enforcement action taken by the NY AG is the first to target a privacy compliance company over children’s privacy.

On March 21, 2017, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that the New York Office of the Attorney General received over 1,300 data breach notifications in 2016, a 60 percent increase from 2015. The reported breaches led to the exposure of personal information of 1.6 million New York residents. According to the Attorney General’s report, 46 percent of the exposed personal information consisted of Social Security numbers, and 35 percent consisted of financial account information. Attorney General Schneiderman cited the updated New York State Department of ...

On March 9, 2017, AllClear ID hosted a webinar with Hunton & Williams partner and chair of the Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice Lisa J. Sotto on the new cybersecurity regulations from the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”). The NYDFS regulations impose significant cybersecurity requirements on impacted businesses that will dictate how they plan for, respond to and recover from data security events.

On March 9, 2017, AllClear ID will host a webinar with Hunton & Williams partner and chair of the Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice Lisa J. Sotto on the new cybersecurity regulations from the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”).

On December 28, 2016, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) announced an updated version of its cybersecurity regulation for financial institutions (the “Updated Regulation”). The Updated Regulation will become effective on March 1, 2017.

Earlier this month, Hunton & Williams announced that Global Privacy and Cybersecurity partner Aaron P. Simpson has switched to London from the firm’s New York office. He will continue his work on behalf of clients as a leader of the firm’s Global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice.

On September 13, 2016, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a proposed regulation that would require banks, insurance companies and other financial services institutions to establish and maintain a cybersecurity program designed to ensure the safety of New York’s financial services industry and to protect New York State from the threat of cyber attacks. 

On March 16, 2016, and March 17, 2016, respectively, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced resolution agreements with North Memorial Health Care of Minnesota (“North Memorial”) and The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research (“Feinstein Institute”) over potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

On April 8, 2015, a New York Assemblyman introduced the Data Security Act in the New York State Assembly that would require New York businesses to implement and maintain information security safeguards. The requirements would apply to “private information,” which is defined as either:

• personal information consisting of any information in combination with one or more of the following data elements, when either the personal information or the data element is not encrypted: Social Security number; driver’s license number or non-driver identification card number; financial account or credit or debit card number in combination with any required security code or password; or biometric information;
• a user name or email address in combination with a password or security question and answer that would permit access to an online account; or
• unsecured protected health information (as that term is defined in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule).

On December 10, 2014, the New York State Department of Financial Services (the “Department”) announced that it issued an industry guidance letter to all Department-regulated banking institutions that formally introduces the Department’s new cybersecurity preparedness assessment process. The letter announces the Department’s plans to expand its information technology examination procedures to increase focus on cybersecurity, which will become a regular, ongoing part of the Department’s bank examination process.

On April 25, 2014, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Microsoft must release user data to U.S. law enforcement when issued a search warrant, even if the data is stored outside of the U.S.

Hunton & Williams LLP is pleased to announce that several privacy attorneys were named to the New York Metro Super Lawyers list for 2012. For the seventh consecutive year, Lisa J. Sotto, partner and head of the Global Privacy and Data Security practice at Hunton & Williams LLP, was selected as a New York Super Lawyer. In addition, partner Aaron P. Simpson was included as a Rising Star for the second year in a row, and associate Melinda L. McLellan debuted in the Rising Stars category. As members of the firm’s Privacy and Data Security team, their practices focus on complex privacy and ...

Over the past several weeks, online tracking practices involving the use of Flash cookies and ETags have been the subject of new research studies, class action lawsuits and significant media attention.

As reported in BNA’s Privacy Law Watch, on April 1, 2011, a New York law went in effect requiring manufacturers of certain electronic equipment, including devices that have hard drives capable of storing personal information or other confidential data, to register with the Department of Environmental Conservation and maintain an electronic waste acceptance program.  The program must include convenient methods for consumers to return electronic waste to the manufacturer and instructions on how consumers can destroy data on the devices before recycling or disposing of them.  Retailers of covered electronic equipment will be required to provide consumers with information at the point of sale about opportunities offered by manufacturers for the return of electronic waste, to the extent they have been provided such information by the manufacturer.

On September 15, 2010, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a $100,000 settlement with EchoMetrix, a developer of parental control software that monitors children’s online activity.  The settlement comes one year after the Electronic Privacy Information Center (“EPIC”) alleged in a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission that EcoMetrix was deceptively collecting and marketing children’s information.