On July 20, 2020, the Connecticut Insurance Department issued a bulletin to licensees reminding them that the Connecticut Insurance Data Security Law (“Act”) becomes effective on October 1, 2020 and providing guidance on compliance.

The Act requires “all persons who are licensed, authorized to operate or registered, or required to be licensed, authorized or registered

The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) potential reversal of the Obama Administration’s ‘Net Neutrality’ rules have been a constant headline lately. Most media coverage goes to the core principals of net neutrality, including blocking, throttling and pay for priority of internet content; however, privacy is also a factor.

Primarily, the FCC issued broadband privacy rules in 2016 after its 2015 net neutrality rules. The broadband privacy rules amongst other things, required websites and internet service providers (ISPs) to use an opt-in system to share or sell customer’s personal information like web history data, app usage data, etc. The FCC’s ability to enforce such rules hinged on a major component of the net neutrality rules which designated ISPs as common carriers and allowed the FCC to apply Title II of the Communications Act to ISPs. 
Continue Reading The Reversal of Net Neutrality on Privacy 101

By Executive Order, the Trump Administration recently reversed an Obama Administration order aimed at protecting consumer’s personal information from use by their Internet Service Provider (ISP). ISPrior to the Trump’s EO, ISPs were required to get customer’s consent before using or selling their browsing habits, online shopping habits, financial information, etc. The reversal of Obama’s protection order has caused a resurgence of interest in VPN services. In theory, using a VPN service creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and the service provider, thus keeping your browsing habits and personal information private from your ISP. However, a paper published in early 2015 by researchers at Sapienza University of Rome and Queen Mary University of London, found that 11 of the 14 providers they tested leaked customer information.
Continue Reading Virtual Private Network (VPN) Providers: How Private Are They?

As was expected, President Trump signed into law the rescinding of the broadband privacy regulations adopted in 2016 by the Obama administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The now rescinded regulations would have required internet service providers (ISPs) to obtain consent from a customer before using or selling the customer’s Web browsing history, app usage history,

Last October, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved new privacy rules governing how Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are permitted to use and share its customers’ personal information. The rules have been fiercely contested by telecom companies that contend they are being unfairly held to more stringent regulations than so-called edge providers (Google, Facebook, etc.), which are subject only to less restrictive guidelines established by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In particular, the FCC rules go beyond FTC regulations in defining “sensitive” customer information to include web browsing and application usage history and requiring ISPs to obtain affirmative “opt-in” consent before using or sharing such information. Certain data security obligations under the rules were scheduled to go into effect on March 2nd, with the remaining provisions relating to data breach notification and opt-in requirements slated for implementation later this year.
Continue Reading Congress, FCC Weigh Measures to Repeal ISP Privacy Rules

In an October 6, 2016, blog post and accompanying fact sheet, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler outlined his proposal for new privacy rules governing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to be considered by the full Commission during its upcoming monthly meeting on October 27. Chairman Wheeler’s post detailed the scope of the issue – ISPs are collecting

We have been waiting for—and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) delivered—its long anticipated broadband data privacy and security rules on March 10, 2015. Through the proposed rules, the FCC has declared its enforcement authority over the data privacy and security practices of Internet service providers (ISPs), much to the chagrin of the industry, which argues

Anonymous users of the almost 40 million users of the Ashley Madison website have filed suit against internet service providers (ISPs) GoDaddy and Amazon alleging that they have been damaged because the ISPs hosted the stolen data and allowed the stolen data to be easily accessible and searchable (view related posts Aug. 27Aug.