In May 2022, Georgetown University law professor Alvaro Bedoya was confirmed to the fifth and last open commissioner’s seat on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). With the appointment of Commissioner Bedoya, a Democrat, the Democratic appointees on the Commission now have a 3-2 majority. Consequently, many analysts observe that FTC Chair Lina Khan is clear to push forward a very robust data privacy protection agenda. In interviews, Chair Khan noted how increased consumer use of online platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a wider “commercial surveillance” industry. Below are some highlights of the FTC’s forthcoming data privacy agenda.
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Northeastern states are making major changes to their privacy laws. Maine enacted a narrow bill, New York significantly amended one of its pending comprehensive privacy proposals, and the Massachusetts House shelved its flagship privacy bill.
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On July 8, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) started the formal rulemaking process to adopt proposed regulations implementing the Consumer Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA), which amended the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
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If there is one thing that could be considered a silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the accelerated discussion of employee privacy issues and workplace monitoring. The mass movement to remote work in recent years has put the spotlight on whether and how employees have privacy rights.
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Last month, U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm granted class certification to eight classes with claims against Marriott or Accenture LLP, a consulting company that worked with Marriott-owned Starwood Hotels and Resorts Inc. at the time of Marriott’s 2018 data breach.
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On 16 May 2022, the French data protection authority, the CNIL, published a new guidance in relation to the use of “cookie walls”, i.e. the practice of conditioning access to a service on the acceptance, by the website user / visitor, of the deployment of cookies or trackers on the user’s device (e.g. computer, smartphone, etc.).
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California-based Twitter was fined $150 million by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) for violating the FTC Act, a 2011 FTC Order, and the privacy principles under the EU-US and Swiss Privacy Shield Frameworks.
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On May 10, 2022, Georgetown Center on Privacy and Technology published American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century, which details how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) weaved a surveillance dragnet that captured a wealth of data from an array of sources.
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On May 3, 2022, Politico published a leaked copy of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in the abortion rights case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In the draft opinion, lead author Justice Samuel Alito explicitly states, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled” and that “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
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On May 2, 2022, Politico published a leaked initial draft of a majority decision in the Supreme Court’s pending case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization; the draft concludes that the Court’s decisions in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992) “must be overruled.”
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