Leveraging Knowledge to Manage Your Data Risks
This week, I received a fake text message (a smish) saying my E-ZPass account was overdue and that I urgently needed to pay it. That’s a new one and, apparently, quite effective. Luckily, I knew it was a scam, but others were victimized.
According to the website Krebs on Security, security researchers “say the…
My home state of Rhode Island may be the smallest in the union, but it has taken on a significant initiative implementing the Protective Domain Name Service (PDNS) in all 64 public school districts. PDNS, an initiative launched by the White House Office of the National Cyber Director, assists K-12 schools with preventing “ransomware and…
Some writers (not from my great state of Rhode Island) act like Rhode Island has been behind the times when it comes to data privacy and security when discussing the state’s new privacy law. I feel a need to explain that this is just not so. Rhode Island is not a laggard when it comes to data privacy.
Rhode Island has had a data privacy law on its books for a long time, though it was not called a privacy law. It was the Rhode Island Identity Theft Protection Act, which was enacted in 2015. It was designed to protect consumers’ privacy and provide data breach notification. It was amended to include data security requirements in the footsteps of the then-novel Massachusetts data security regulations. It was a one-stop shop for data privacy, security, and breach notification. Still, it did not provide individuals the right to access or delete data and was not as robust as new data privacy laws. Rhode Island was an early state to include health information in its definition of personal information that requires breach notification in the event of unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of health information. Many states still do not include health information in the definition of breach notification.
But just so the record is clear, consumer protection has been in the DNA of Rhode Island’s laws for many years, and the new privacy law was an expansion of previous efforts to protect consumers.
The new privacy law in Rhode Island expands the privacy protections for consumers and is the latest in a wave of privacy laws being enacted in the United States. As of this writing, 19 states have new privacy laws, and Rhode Island makes it 20.
All of the privacy laws are fairly similar, except for California, which is the only state to date that provides for a private right of action in the event of a data breach (with requirements prior to the filing of a lawsuit).
That said, for those readers who will fall under the Rhode Island law and are in my home state, here are the details of the law (the Rhode Island Data Transparency and Privacy Protection Act (RIDTPPA)) of which you should be aware:Continue Reading Rhode Island’s New Data Privacy Law
The Rhode Island General Assembly amended the state’s data breach law, known as the Rhode Island Identity Theft Protection Act (Act) that makes significant changes to notification requirements for state and municipal agencies in the event of a data breach.
The Act requires state agencies and municipalities to notify the State Police of an incident…
2021 will go down in our minds as many things, including the year in which more people reported fraud and the highest dollar amount of fraud losses in history. Not a great statistic.
According to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2021 (the Data Book), the FTC received 5.7 million reports from…
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee recently announced that they are considering implementing vaccine passport programs in their respective states. Baker stated that he is working with other states to use a QR code system that allows users to scan to verify vaccination status. In Rhode Island, the Department of Health…
Two more state governors, those of Maine and North Dakota, have signed bills into law that adopt the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) data security model law (Model Law). Maine and North Dakota join several other states that have already passed similar laws. Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin have similar…
Last week, the Tex-Mex restaurant chain On the Border suffered a data breach that impacted its payment acceptance systems in 27 states. The restaurant says that some credit card information of customers who visited the chain between April and August 2019 may have been compromised. In a press release, On the Border representatives said, “Our…
The New York “Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security Act” (SHIELD Act), N.Y. Gen Bus. Law§ 899-bb, requires businesses that collect private information on New York residents to implement reasonable cybersecurity safeguards to protect that information. While this is a new law in the State of New York, it is simply joining other states,…
We write about data breaches and privacy issues all the time. We are desensitized in some ways to the fact that our privacy may have been, or will be, compromised and, quite frankly, many people now distrust some of the very companies with which they shared their information. California led the way regarding privacy legislation…
