While much attention has been focused on the new sweeping California privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), other laws governing the handling and protection of personal data by businesses have been passed without nearly as much fanfare. One such law is the New York Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Security Data Act, also known as the SHIELD Act. Although not nearly as broad as the CCPA, the SHIELD Act may affect any person or business that collects, uses, and/or stores “private information” from a New York resident. Under the SHIELD Act, any such person or business must implement adequate security measures, set forth in the Act, to protect “private information” of New York residents. The Act also outlines the steps that must be taken by a business to notify affected individuals of any security breach in which “private information” was or is reasonably believed to have been compromised.
Magazine publishers and list managers take note. American Media is the latest magazine publisher to be hit with a class action lawsuit accusing it of violating subscribers’ privacy rights by selling information about them without written consent. The suit is part of a growing trend, following similar allegations in the past year against leading media companies like Conde Nast parent company Advance Magazine Publishers Inc., Hearst Communications Inc. and Reader’s Digest publisher Trusted Media Brands, Inc., to challenge list rental practices under a long-ignored Michigan statute enacted in the wake of the Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination proceedings.