Shea M. Leitch

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US Facial Recognition Firm Ordered to Stop Processing UK and Australian Data and Pay Fine Over Privacy Law Violations

ICO and OAIC Find ‘Serious Breaches’ of Privacy Law On Nov. 29, 2021, the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced a provisional intent to fine Clearview AI over £17 million, alleging several privacy violations related to the company’s use of “scraped” data and biometrics of individuals. More significantly, the provisional order would require the company … Continue Reading

Colorado’s Privacy Act: A Curve Ball on Consent and Targeted Ads

By Andreas Kaltsounis, Shea M. Leitch and Stanton Burke on August 3, 2021 Posted in Advertising

On July 7, 2021, Gov. Jared Polis signed the Colorado Privacy Act (CoPA) into law, making Colorado the third state to enact a comprehensive privacy law, joining California and Virginia. The Act goes into effect on July 1, 2023, and shares many of the rights and obligations provided in other comprehensive privacy laws such as … Continue Reading

Highly Anticipated SCOTUS Ruling Upends TCPA Landscape

By Shea M. Leitch and Melinda L. McLellan on April 13, 2021 Posted in Telephone Consumer Protection Act

In a landmark decision issued April 1, 2021, the Supreme Court settled a hotly-contested debate over the definition of “automatic telephone dialing system” (or “autodialer”) under the 1991 Telephone Consumer Privacy Act (“TCPA”). The Court’s decision is likely to upend the TCPA compliance and litigation landscape, as the law’s private right of action coupled with … Continue Reading

California OAG Proposes New CCPA Regs Two Weeks Before Voters Decide on the Fate of CCPA 2.0

By Alan L. Friel, Jeewon Serrato, Shea M. Leitch and Patrick Waldrop on October 20, 2020 Posted in CCPA

On Monday, Oct. 12, the California Office of the Attorney General (the Attorney General or OAG) released a third set of proposed modifications to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) regulations (the Regulations). The full text can be found on the Attorney General’s website here. The proposed modifications to the Regulations are limited to four … Continue Reading

The Washington Privacy Act Is Back

By Shea M. Leitch and Andreas Kaltsounis on March 2, 2020 Posted in Consumer Data, State Legislation

After the Washington Privacy Act (“WPA”) failed to pass in 2019, state legislators promised to renew their efforts in the 2020 legislative session. Lawmakers kept this promise last month, introducing three bills targeted at an array of consumer privacy issues. The first bill, SB 6281, or the Washington Privacy Act, introduced in the Senate on … Continue Reading

Less Than a Month to Go Until Nevada Privacy Law Effective Date

By Alan L. Friel and Shea M. Leitch on September 12, 2019 Posted in Consumer Data

As discussed in our previous blog post on the topic, Nevada’s amendments to its privacy law are set to go into effect Oct. 1, 2019. Less comprehensive in scope than the much-heralded CCPA, the Nevada privacy law amendment has received significantly less attention than its California counterpart. Even so, the new Nevada privacy law presents … Continue Reading

FTC Announces Enforcement Action, Warning Letters for Companies Falsely Claiming Privacy Shield Participation

By Laura E. Jehl and Shea M. Leitch on June 21, 2019 Posted in EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced a compliance sweep of companies claiming to be in compliance with the U.S.-EU Privacy Shield and U.S.-Swiss Privacy Shield Frameworks. The U.S.-EU Privacy Shield and the U.S.-Swiss Privacy Shield programs enable companies to self-certify that they have adopted a number of data protection practices to bring their businesses … Continue Reading

Nevada Adds “Do Not Sell” Requirement to Privacy Law

By Shea M. Leitch and Alan L. Friel on June 5, 2019 Posted in CCPA, Consumer Data, GDPR

Last week, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak signed new privacy legislation into law in Nevada. Senate Bill 220 (SB-220) updates Nevada Revised State 603A to provide consumers a new right to opt out of the sale of their data. Effective Oct. 1, 2019, the new law will come into effect prior to the more comprehensive California … Continue Reading

Washington Privacy Act Dies in the House While California Continues to Consider Refinements to the CCPA

By Shea M. Leitch and Niloufar Massachi on May 6, 2019 Posted in CCPA, Consumer Data

After passing the Senate nearly unanimously, the Washington Privacy Act (SB 5376) has stalled in the House of Representatives. The bill failed to achieve passage out of committee by the April 17 deadline for consideration of bills originating in the opposite house, and was returned to the Senate on April 28. As a result, SB … Continue Reading

Insurance Data Security Model Law Picks Up Steam

By Andreas Kaltsounis and Shea M. Leitch on February 6, 2019 Posted in Cybersecurity, State Legislation

Three states recently enacted variations of the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s (NAIC) Insurance Data Security Model Law (MDL-668), based on the landmark cybersecurity requirements issued by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) in March 2017. The NYDFS requirements apply to certain banking, insurance and financial service entities licensed in the state of … Continue Reading