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On April 1, 2021, the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid et al., No. 19-511 (Apr. 1, 2021). At issue in Facebook, was the question of what technology constitutes an “automatic telephone dialing system” within the meaning of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. §227 et seq. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision is a huge win for companies who communicate with their consumers by telephone/text message. …
Continue Reading Supreme Court Adopts Narrow Interpretation of ATDS

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently vacated a 4.3 million dollar civil monetary penalty imposed by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights in 2017 against the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, holding that the penalty was “arbitrary, capricious, and otherwise unlawful.”…
Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Vacates MD Anderson HIPAA Penalty

On January 13, 2021, the FTC announced that fertility-app developer Flo Health, Inc. (“Flo”) agreed to a settlement over allegations that the company shared app users’ health information with third-party data analytics providers despite representations that Flo would keep such information private.…
Continue Reading FTC Settles with Fertility-Tracking App Developer Regarding Health Data Disclosures

On January 12, 2021, in Wengui v. Clark Hill, PLC, et al., the United States District Court for the District of Columbia rejected a law firm defendant’s assertions of the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine for forensic reporting and other related information associated with its outside counsel’s data breach investigation. …
Continue Reading D.C. Court Rejects Attorney-Client Privilege and Work Product Protections in Data Breach Case

As reported on the Hunton Retail Law Resource blog, the Federal Trade Commission settled charges with mobile advertising company Tapjoy, Inc., on allegations that the company failed to provide promised rewards in exchange for completed activities such as the payment of money, disclosure of sometimes-sensitive personal information or registration for “free trial” marketing offers.…
Continue Reading FTC Pursues Advertising Network that Failed to Deliver In-Game Rewards in Exchange for Payment or Personal Information

On January 11, 2021, the FTC announced that Everalbum, Inc. (“Everalbum”), developer of the “Ever” photo storage app, agreed to a settlement over allegations that the company deceived consumers about its use of facial recognition technology and its retention of the uploaded photos and videos of users who deactivated their accounts.…
Continue Reading FTC Announces Proposed Settlement with App Developer over Alleged Deceptive Practices

The Federal Trade Commission issued a call for presentations on consumer privacy and data security research for its sixth annual PrivacyCon, which is to be held on July 27, 2021. The call for presentations asks for empirical research and demonstrations, including economic analyses, with implications for privacy and data security policy and law.…
Continue Reading FTC Issues Call for Presentations for PrivacyCon 2021

Lexology’s Getting the Deal Through releases its 2021 guide on Data Protection and Privacy. Hunton’s privacy and cybersecurity team members serve as contributing editors of the guide and have authored multiple chapters, including on Belgium, the UK and United States. This blog entry provides a link to download the guide. …
Continue Reading Hunton Privacy Team Contributes to 2021 Getting the Deal Through Guide on Data Protection and Privacy