Digital Media and Data Privacy Law Blog

by Forrest Campbell, Health Law Attorney, fcampbell@brookspierce.com 

In December 2014, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS") and Anchorage Community Mental Health Services ("ACMHS") settled alleged HIPAA violations for $150,000.

Don't be misled--this settlement is not important just for parties subject to HIPAA. It's important to anyone who maintains confidential information in electronic form.

Here's what happened according to HHS. ACMHS failed to regularly update its IT resources with available patches, and ACMHS used outdated, unsupported ... Read More 

by Forrest Campbell, Health Law Attorney, fcampbell@brookspierce.com

In light of the Ebola outbreak, HHS's Office for Civil Rights ("OCR") issued a bulletin to accomplish two things: (i) ensure that HIPAA covered entities and business associates understand how PHI may be shared in emergency situations, and (ii) remind parties that HIPAA's privacy requirements are not set aside during an emergency. The bulletin can be accessed through this ... Read More 

In remarks delivered at the 2014 BAA Marketing Law Conference, Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, confirmed that, when it comes to privacy, the FTC is focusing on mobile technologies in a big way.   

This is nothing new—the FTC has brought a number cases in the past couple of years.  2014 was an especially active one, though.  For example, the FTC and Apple settled a complaint alleging Apple billed consumers for millions of dollars of charges racked up by children in kids’ mobile apps without first getting parental consent for those purchases.  The FTC ... Read More 

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission usually gets much of the glory for policing privacy and data security issues. For example, just a few months ago the FTC achieved a settlement requiring Fandango and Credit Karma to establish comprehensive data security programs and biennial security assessments following charges that the companies misrepresented to consumers the level of security of their mobile apps and failed to secure the transmission of consumers’ sensitive personal information. And who could forget the FTC’s Google Buzz settlement from 2011?

But recently the FTC ... Read More 

by David Smyth, Securities Enforcement Attorney

On October 31^st, the Federal Trade Commission sued St. Petersburg, Florida-based debt broker Bayview Solutions and two of its principals for posting the debt portfolios of 28,000 consumers online, including their bank account numbers and other identifying information. The “facts” that follow come from the FTC’s complaint. They may not be true!

Bayview’s Business

Bayview buys and sells portfolios of charged-off consumer debt for eventual collection by third-party debt collectors. One means of its business is ... Read More 

The right of journalists to refuse to testify regarding information or sources obtained as part of the news-gathering process, known as the reporter’s privilege, has been recognized by 49 of the 50 states and the District of Colombia. However, these existing protections are only applicable in state court. Federal law offers no statutory reporter’s privilege, leading to high-profile federal court cases in which a journalist is forced to choose between revealing confidential sources or spending time in jail for contempt of court.

The most prominent recent example is the case of ... Read More 

The next time you go for a long hike in a national forest with no cell phone service, you might want to take a drone with you so that you can send for help when you break your leg, dehydrate, and need help.

While you, as a non-commercial drone “hobbyist” or “modeler,” might—emphasis on might—not violate any state or federal law if you were to send a drone to facilitate your rescue, the same cannot be said for many other potential drone operators.  In fact, law enforcement in some states may not be able to send a drone to determine your specific location or provide you with medication ... Read More