As noted earlier this week, Rep. Bobby Rush introduced H.R.611, a bill he had introduced in the previous Congress: the “Building Effective Strategies to Promote Responsibility Accountability Choice Transparency Innovation Consumer Expectations and Safeguards Act” (also known as “BEST PRACTICES Act“). Last year, the bill (H.R.5777 in its previous incarnation) had no co-sponsors and never…
Category: Business
A less than enthusiastic response to the Pineda v. Williams-Sonoma decision (updated)
In the interest of presenting different perspectives on privacy issues, I note that Kashmir Hill does not seem to share the reaction of privacy advocates who have cheered a decision by the California Supreme Court. The headline of her column, “A Ridiculous California Court Ruling: Zip Codes are Private” was my first hint that she…
Consumer groups cheer court’s ruling on consumer privacy protections
There’s been a lot of media coverage of a decision reported here yesterday in which the California Supreme Court held that Williams-Sonoma violated a state law when it requested and recorded a customer’s zip code during a credit card transaction in a store. In a joint press release, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Consumer Federation of…
Businesses can’t request and record your zip code in card present transactions – Calif. Sup. Ct.
Interesting opinion from the Supreme Court of California that a zip code may constitute “personal identification information.” From Pineda v. Williams-Sonoma Stores: The Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971 (Credit Card Act) (Civ. Code, § 1747 et seq.) is “designed to promote consumer protection.” (Florez v. Linens ’N Things, Inc. (2003) 108 Cal.App.4th 447, 450…