In a time of budget sensitivity, many businesses, government agencies and other types of organizations are turning to independent contractors as a more flexible and less expensive alternative to hiring regular, full-time employees. However, the cost savings of using…
Posts by Category: Data Protection & Privacy
Seyfarth Shaw’s Social Media Privacy Legislation Desktop Reference
Seyfarth’s Social Media Practice Group has prepared an easy-to-use “Social Media Privacy Legislation Desktop Reference,” as a starting point to formulating guidance when these issues arise. The Desktop Reference: Describes the content and purpose of…
Tennessee Joins the Growing List of States Limiting Employers’ Access to Personal Online Content
Legislation to restrict employers’ access to applicants’ and employees’ personal online content continues its rapid expansion in 2014.Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has signed his own state’s password protection law. This new law goes into…
Connecticut Enacts Employee Online Privacy Law
On May 19, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed into law Public Act No. 15-6, titled “An Act Concerning Employee Online Privacy.” The act applies to both employees and job applicants and prohibits employers from requiring or requesting employees or applicants to…
Privacy Industry Index (PII): Data Breach Vendors
Protecting data has value and you have to invest to make sure that data is properly protected. Businesses must work with a large collection of vendors from a variety of disciplines to reach their privacy goals. From the legal advisors to the insurance companies to the…
Wisconsin Adopts Password Protection Law
Wisconsin has become the thirteenth state to enact a law limiting the circumstances under which employers may request or require access to the personal internet accounts of applicants and employees. The 2013 Wisconsin Act 208, which amends the Wisconsin Fair…
Two Data Brokers Settle FTC Charges That They Sold Consumer Data Without Complying With Protections Required Under the FCRA
Two data brokers have agreed to settle FTC charges that they violated the FCRA by providing reports about consumers to users such as prospective employers and landlords without taking reasonable steps to make sure that they were accurate, or without making sure their…
2014 Data Protection and Breach Readiness Guide 2014 Breach Report Highlights:
89% of breaches and data loss incidents could have been prevented 740 million records disclosed 31% of insiders were due to insider threats or mistakes 21% of the incidents were the result of physical loss (PC, drive, notebooks, paper documents..) 40% of the top…
U.S. Congress Ready to Enact Data Security and Breach Notification Rules After Recent Consumer Data Breaches
In view of the recent spate of cyber attacks on retailers and the patchwork of existing laws that greatly complicate a company’s data breach response, Congress appears ready to create a national data protection and breach notification law that, in theory, would…
Is FCRA’s Prohibition on CRAs from Disclosing Truthful Public Information Constitutional?
The Southern District of California has granted the United States’ motion to intervene in Dowell v. General Information Services, Inc. (GIS), to defend the constitutionality of 15 U.S.C. § 1681c, a provision of the FCRA. GIS contends that subsections (a)(2) and…




