On Monday, May 22, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published a decision hitting Meta, parent of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, with a €1.2b ($1.3b) fine for impermissibly transmitting personal information from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the United States. The EDPB described Meta’s activities as “serious” and including “transfers that are systematic, repetitive, and continuous,” and it stated that the fine was intended to serve as a “strong signal to organizations that serious infringements have far-reaching consequences.”Continue Reading How Much Forgiveness Does $1.3 Billion Buy in the EU?

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) recently issued a proposed order requiring BetterHelp, an online counseling service, to pay $7.8 million over misrepresentations to consumers and improper disclosures of consumers’ health information to advertisers, such as Facebook, Snapchat, Criteo, and Pinterest.[1] This order and consent agreement comes a month after the FTC entered a settlement with GoodRx for similar privacy violations, which we examined in the following article here.Continue Reading BetterHelp… Themselves: FTC Fines Company for Improper Deceptive Advertising Practices

U.S. Regulator Warns of “Evidence” of Global Cyber Assault Occurring Inside the U.S. and Steps Your Company Should Take Against a Ransomware Attack 

On Friday, May 12, 2017, Laura Wolf, Critical Infrastructure Protection Lead of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a notification stating that:
Continue Reading ALERT: Ransomware – a Global Wake-Up Call