In an apparent win for industry, the Vermont Senate Institutions Committee voted 5-0 Thursday to replace the text of a comprehensive privacy bill (S-71) with that of S-93. S-93, which the Vermont Chamber of Commerce and other business groups preferred, lacks a private right of action and is much like Connecticut's privacy law.
There are "subjective differences" in how those within the privacy team and the rest of an organization think about data protection Ethyca CEO Cillian Kieran said Wednesday during an Ethyca webinar. Terms like data mapping, data inventory and data labeling may have different interpretations depending on whether you’re talking to the privacy team, engineers or the legal team, he said.
Vermont lawmakers weighed the need for a bill protecting the sensitive information of certain public servants at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. Some questioned if the bill (H-342) is necessary, while others asked whether it would lead to excessive lawsuits.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) on Monday announced a lawsuit against Allstate and its subsidiary National General for not protecting personal information from cyberattacks, and violating the state’s breach notification law. While James noted that the insurance companies' internal cyber defenses were inadequate, she said the broader cause was their choice of prioritizing profit over safety.
Three amicus briefs were submitted to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday supporting California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) in a case about a bill regulating social media feeds for minors. The legislation, S.B.-976, would make it illegal for internet-based services and applications to provide an addictive feed to a user younger than 18 unless the operator does not know that the user is a minor.
Several people spoke out about how the California Privacy Protection Agency's draft rule changes to the data broker registration regime (see 2503050020) will affect small businesses, during the CPPA’s public meeting Friday. Ahead of the meeting, the agency released draft rule changes that support the state’s upcoming data-deletion mechanism (see 2502270066).
In the privacy and cybersecurity enforcement arena, state attorneys general have begun to broaden areas of interest and shift their focus to new technologies and data associated with them, said Morrison Foerster privacy lawyer Linda Clark during a MoForecast podcast episode Wednesday.
Several groups said in amicus briefs they support Snap and Meta in arguing to the California Supreme Court that the social media platforms shouldn't be required to turn over posts and other communications made on the apps as evidence in a California murder case. Doing so would significantly decrease the power of the 1986 Stored Communications Act (SCA), they argued in briefs obtained by Privacy Daily.
The North Dakota Senate Education Committee voted 6-0 to clear a student data privacy bill as amended during a committee hearing Wednesday.
Recent court rulings in California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) cases may signal that judges are more skeptical about what counts as an actual injury under violations of the statute, said privacy lawyers: That could lead to more decisions in favor of businesses over plaintiffs. However, the lawyers said there's a long way to go before a definitive ruling is made.