Articles

From Pickpockets to Playstations: Evolving Data Privacy Threats and Federal and State Responses

In recent years, there have been several high-profile security breaches relating to consumer financial data. These breaches - involving companies as diverse as GE Money, AOL, T.J. Maxx, Boeing, Rite Aid, and most recently, Sony's PlayStation Network - have revealed the personal information of hundreds of millions of consumers. In response to these events, members of Congress have proposed several bills to give the Federal Trade Commission the authority to craft regulations and administer penalites for breaches of data security. While Congress is just now making serious progress towards a legislative solution to this issue, the FTC and individual states have been struggling with data breaches for some time. This article reviews the current patchwork of federal and state breach laws and enforcement actions regarding data breaches and then considers several bills before Congress that attempt to create a national data privacy standard.

Published by Bloomberg Law Reports