Details about a U.S. Secret Service safe house for the First Family — to be used in a national emergency — were found to have leaked on a LimeWire file-sharing network recently, members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee were told this morning. Also unearthed on LimeWire networks in recent days were presidential…
Category: Laws
FTC extends Red Flags Rule enforcement to November
The Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC” or “Commission”) is extending further its deferral of enforcement of the Identity Theft Red Flags Rule to November 1, 2009.1 This rule was promulgated pursuant to § 114 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (“FACTA”). Congress directed the Commission and other agencies to develop regulations requiring “creditors”2…
When is personal data truly de-identified?
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is about to rule whether health care entities will need to notify patients if their de-identified data — patient data that has been stripped of all potential for identifying individuals, which is often used for research and development — is breached. As it stands now, de-identified…
Germany adopts stricter data protection law
On July 3, 2009, the German Federal Parliament passed comprehensive amendments to the Federal Data Protection Act (the “Federal Act”). These amendments also passed the Federal Council on July 10, 2009, and the revised law will enter into force on September 1, 2009. The new amendments cover a range of data protection-related issues, including marketing,…