Information on data protection regulations in the Middle East

  Bahrain. Bahrain enacted Law No. 30, 2018, the law protecting personal data (Data Protection Law), which goes into force on August 1, 2019. Bahrain has several other laws with provisions relating to data protection, including: Law No. 16, 2014, regarding the Protection of Information and State Documents; Law No. 2, 2017, for Ratifying the Arab Agreement in Combating […]

UK DPA fined “parenting club” company for violation of the principle of “fairness” in processing

  On April 9, 2019, the UK Data Protection Authority, the Information Commissioner Officer (ICO), served a monetary penalty notice under section 55A of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) of around $ 520,000. The fined company (Bounty) shared the personal data of over 14 million individuals to a number of organizations including credit reference […]

Illinois bill aims at eliminating BIPA (Biometric Information Privacy Act)’s private right of action

On February 25, 2019, an Illinois Senator introduced SB2134 to amend the Biometric Information Privacy Act (740 ILCS 14/1 et seq., BIPA) creating a  private right of action. The bill is currently in Committee. The majority of BIPA claims have been brought against businesses as class actions seeking statutory damages.   Synopsis Amends the Biometric […]

U.S. Supreme Court grants certiorari because settlements may not be “fair, reasonable, and adequate” since Plaintiffs might not have standing in light of Spokeo

On March 20, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a judgment of the Ninth Circuit and remanded it for further proceedings “Because there remain substantial questions about whether any of the named plaintiffs has standing to sue in light of our decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 578 U. S. ___ (2016).” By way of […]

Recommendation of self-regulatory units should be taken into account to avoid FTC investigations

The Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), a self-regulatory advertising unit approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, recently found issues with the advertising approach taken by two mobile applications for kids: KleptoCats and My Talking Tom. CARU monitors advertising and privacy practices and determines whether such […]

U.S. Supreme Court deems sufficient the “increased risk of future identity theft” for standing in data breach putative class actions

On March 25, 2019, the Supreme Court denied Zappo’s petition for certiorari allowing a class action to proceed for a 2012 data breach even though consumers didn’t establish they were injured by the breach. This is a setback for companies hoping to limit their liability in data breach cases. By way of background. On June […]

Washington State privacy act moves ahead

On Friday, March 22, 2019,  the Washington State House of Representative’s Committee on Innovation, Technology and Economic Development held its first public hearing on the proposed privacy legislation, SB 5376. The Washington privacy act, SB 5376, was introduced January 17, 2019 and passed its third reading in the Senate with 46 votes (against 1) on March […]