On May 16, 2017, the Governor of the State of Washington, Jay Inslee, signed into law House Bill 1493, which sets forth requirements for businesses who collect and use biometric identifiers for commercial purposes. The law will become effective on July 23, 2017. Washington becomes the third state to pass legislation regulating the commercial use of biometric identifiers.
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Texas
OCR Fines Texas Health System For Alleged HIPAA Privacy Rule Violation
On May 10, 2017, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights announced a 2.4 million dollar civil monetary penalty against Memorial Hermann Health System for alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 Privacy Rule. …
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Texas AG Settles Suit with Messaging App Over Children’s Data Practices
On October 3, 2016, the Texas Attorney General announced a $30,000 settlement with mobile app developer Juxta Labs stemming from allegations that the company engaged in deceptive practices regarding its collection of personal information from children.
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Texas AG Argues EEOC Guidance on Criminal Background Checks Violates State Sovereignty
As reported in the Hunton Employment and Labor Perspectives Blog, on November 4, 2013, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sought injunctive and declaratory relief against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the grounds that the agency’s April 2012 Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions “purports to preempt the State’s sovereign power to enact and abide by state-law hiring practices.” …
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Obama Administration Releases Draft Preliminary Cybersecurity Framework
In anticipation of an upcoming cybersecurity workshop to take place September 11-13 in Dallas, on August 28, 2013, the Obama Administration issued several documents relating to the cybersecurity framework that the President called for in his February 2013 Executive Order on cybersecurity.
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Texas Enacts Law Requiring Warrants to Search Emails
On June 14, 2013, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a bill requiring law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant showing probable cause that a specific offense has been committed before accessing customer electronic data held by email service providers.
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Texas Enacts Expansive New Health Privacy Law
Last month, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a new health privacy bill into law that imposes new obligations exceeding those in the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The law could have a broad impact on many non-HIPAA covered entities.
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Proposed Bills Target Google Earth and Google Street View
Google Earth and Google Street View, two popular applications offered by Google that enable users to view detailed satellite images of buildings or street-level panoramas of major roads and neighborhoods, have recently engendered controversy. In the United States, legislators in California and Texas have introduced bills directed at Google Earth and other similar applications. The proposed California bill prohibits operators of commercial Internet websites that make a “virtual globe browser available to members of the public” from providing “aerial or satellite photographs or imagery” of schools, religious facilities or government buildings, unless those images have been blurred. Violators could be fined at least $250,000 and natural persons who knowingly violate the provisions could face imprisonment between one to three years. The proposed Texas bill prohibits any person from publishing on the Internet “an image capable of zooming into greater detail than that of an aerial photograph taken without a magnifying lens 300 feet or higher of private property not visible from the public right-of-way,” and classifies the offense as a Class B misdemeanor, which is punishable by a fine up to $2,000 or 180 days in prison.…
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