California is the gold standard for state privacy laws, having recently enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). Virginia and Colorado also have enacted comprehensive privacy laws, which will take effect in 2023. Recently, the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) released its state privacy legislation tracker.

Bloomberg reported this week that the first comprehensive federal privacy bill of the year was introduced by Representative Suzan DelBene (D-Washington). The bill is known as the Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act. The key concept of the bill is to protect sensitive personal information, which includes data relating to financial, health, genetic,

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) has been on the books for years and is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). COPPA basically prohibits companies from collecting personal information from children under the age of 13 without parental consent. The FTC has an impressive record of enforcement actions under COPPA and compliance with

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

On March 23, 2018, the President signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 (H.R. 1625), an omnibus spending bill that includes the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (the CLOUD Act). Among other provisions, the CLOUD Act amends the Stored Communications Act of 1986 (18 U.S.C. §§ 2701-2712, hereinafter the

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a scam alert this week notifying consumers that it has received an up-tick in complaints that scammers are calling consumers claiming they are from the Social Security Administration.

The scammers tell the individual that there has been a computer problem at the Social Security Administration and that they need

Last week, a drone carrying 16 individual bags of marijuana, cell phones and chargers, two bags of tobacco, and 31 oxycodone pills crashed into the ground near the Washington State Prison yard.

A corrections department spokeswoman, Joan Heath, said that the drone crashed into the ground near the prison around 10:45 p.m. Drones carrying contraband into prison yards has been a growing problem. It is the newest way that inmates can get contraband into the prison to sell to other prisoners for a significant profit. For the most part, prison administrators only know that a drone has come and gone because pieces of packages dropped from the sky are found stuck in the prison yard fences or on the ground near the prison yard.
Continue Reading Contraband Drone Crashes Near Prison in Washington State

In Washington, D.C. last week, the U.S. House of Representatives Unmanned Systems Caucus and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) held a briefing for congressional staff on technologies that enable unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to operate longer distances and at higher altitudes in the U.S. national airspace.

The briefing included two panels of