May 2024

On 7 May 2024, Singapore’s Parliament introduced an Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore (ACRA) Registry and Regulatory Enhancements Bill (Bill), which will limit public disclosures of company directors’ residential addresses on the business registry in Singapore.Continue Reading Singapore Looks to Tighten Corporate Disclosures of Directors’ Personal Data

The Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act, 410 ILCS 513/1, et seq. (“GIPA”), which was passed in 1998 and amended in 2008, had until recently received little attention from the plaintiffs’ bar. That changed last August, after a court granted certification in a federal GIPA class action involving alleged unauthorized disclosure of consumers’ genetic information to unknown third-party developers by a website that sold DNA analysis reports. See Melvin v. Sequencing, LLC, 344 F.R.D. 231, 233 (N.D. Ill. 2023). Over 50 GIPA cases were filed in 2023 alone in the wake of that ruling, with many more now pending in Illinois state and federal courts. As this litigation trend continues almost a year following the granting of class certification in Melvin, companies are asking: what is GIPA, are we subject to it, and what should we do to mitigate litigation risk?  Employers, insurance companies, and others that collect health- and genetic-related information should read on to learn more.Continue Reading Employers and Insurance Companies Continue To Be Targeted with Deluge of Claims Under the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently issued four orders imposing $196 million in fines against the three largest national mobile services providers in the United States (i.e., AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon) and Sprint, who merged with T-Mobile in 2020 (the “Mobile Providers”).[1] The FCC fined them for sharing customer location information with third parties without prior customer consent and then failing to take reasonable measures to protect that information against unauthorized disclosure. Although AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon suspended in 2019 the specific programs that gave rise to the fines, the Forfeiture Orders stand as the definitive guidance from the FCC on the treatment of customer location information under Section 222 of the Communications Act and the FCC’s rules regulating access to “customer proprietary network information” or “CPNI.” They also provide a window into upcoming debates and possible additional FCC actions.Continue Reading FCC Fines National Mobile Providers for Sharing Customer Location Information: What Are the Lessons and What to Expect in this New Era of FCC Mobile Data Privacy Oversight

The recently released discussion draft of the American Privacy Rights Act rejects the opt-out approach to targeted advertising in 17 state consumer privacy laws, and instead requires express affirmative opt-in consent for tailoring online ads based on a specific viewer’s interests and activities, akin to the prevailing European approach.  In a guest post published earlier