Additional Time to Comply with Identity Theft Prevention Regulations

The Massachusetts Department of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation have extended the deadline for compliance with 201 CMR 17.00: Business Community Given Additional Time to Comply with Identity Theft Prevention Regulations. The regulations were orginally set to take effect on January 1, 2009. That deadline has been extended to May 1, 2009.  The deadlines for … Read more »

New Data Security Regulations Have Sweeping Implications For Massachusetts Businesses

A white paper written by Joe Laferrera of Gesmer Updegrove LLP New Data Security Regulations Have Sweeping Implications For Massachusetts Businesses (.pdf) provides a great analysis of the new Massachusetts Data Privacy Regulations, their impact and how to deal with them. These are my prior posts on the new Massachusetts Data Privacy Regulations: Computer System … Read more »

Computer System Requirements for New Massachusetts Privacy Regulations

As discussed in earlier alerts (Additional Guidance on the Massachusetts Privacy Regulations, Privacy and Security Alert: Massachusetts Has New Data Security Regulations and New Massachusetts Privacy Laws), starting on January 1, 2009, businesses will be held to a higher standard regarding the protection of Massachusetts residents’ personal information. The regulations set out in detail the … Read more »

Whistleblowers in France

French privacy law limits the ability to use anonymous hotlines. In France, the French Data Protection Authority (La Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL)), an administrative agency, oversees processes involving the collection or compilation of personal data. In 2005 they decided that two reporting procedures were in violation of French privacy law. McDonald’s … Read more »

Additional Guidance on the Massachusetts Privacy Regulations

The Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation has provided guidance regarding its new regulations requiring all entities that own, license, store or maintain personal information about a resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive written information security program and make specific computer information security requirements. I mentioned … Read more »

New Massachusetts Regulations to Mandate Comprehensive Information Security Requirements

Goodwin Procter LLP published a summary of the New Massachusetts Regulations to Mandate Comprehensive Information Security Requirements. The regulations have broad coverage, applying to all entities that own, license, store or maintain personal information about residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, regardless of whether or not the entity has operations in the Commonwealth. Federally regulated … Read more »

Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists

The National Research Council has published a new report finding that all U.S. agencies with counterterrorism programs that collect personal data should be required to evaluate the programs’ effectiveness, lawfulness, and impacts on privacy. In its press release, they summarize that “Collecting and examining data to try to identify terrorists inevitably involves privacy violations, since … Read more »