Privacy laws relating to the collection and use personal information continue to be a hot topic for 2024. While there is still no over-arching federal privacy law in the United States, several states have passed privacy laws that affect businesses that collect (whether online or off-line) and use personal information. California, Connecticut, Virginia, and Colorado already have privacy laws in effect. Utah’s privacy law goes into effect on December 31, 2023. Five more states’ privacy laws will become effective in 2024 – Washington (3/31/24), Oregon (7/1/24), Texas (7/1/24), Florida (7/1/24), and Montana (10/1/24). Additional state laws will become effective beyond 2024 – Delaware (1/1/25), Iowa (1/1/25), Tennessee (7/1/25), and Indiana (1/1/26). Beyond the laws that have been enacted, numerous state legislatures will be reviewing and debating proposed privacy legislation in 2024, namely: Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, Maine, and Massachusetts.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently updated its compliance plan for businesses regarding the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Data breaches continue to make headline news.
In Gordon v. Softech International, decided on July 31, 2013, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit tacked the issue of whether someone who discloses information obtained from the department of motor vehicles should be responsible when the information is misused by the person who received the information.
By William MacDonald*
Yesterday the Federal Trade Commission (the "FTC") announced that it had entered into a settlement agreement with online advertising network, Epic Marketplace Inc. ("Epic"), that bars the company from continuing to use history sniffing technology, which allows online operators to "sniff" a browser to see what sites consumers have visited in the past.