Yeji Kim

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On July 16, 2024, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) Board met to discuss advancing its over 200-page draft rulemaking package to formal proceedings.[1] The proposed regulations include 37 pages of significant new obligations spanning cybersecurity audits, automated decision-making technology (e.g., artificial intelligence, (AI)), privacy risk assessments, and 72 pages of other updates to existing regulations. Together, these regulations would create new compliance obligations for tens of thousands of California businesses and are preliminarily estimated to generate a staggering $4.2 billion in compliance costs for those businesses in their first year alone. Critically, these estimates do not include the many businesses that are based outside of California, yet subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) because they do business in California, meaning the real economic burden is likely to be far more significant.Continue Reading Substantial New CCPA Regulations Inch Closer to Reality: A Detailed Overview of the New Requirements and Their Projected $4 Billion Cost to California Businesses

In the first half of 2024, seven new states—Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Rhode Island—all enacted their takes on comprehensive privacy laws, bringing the total number of states with such laws…

Continue Reading Seven New States Join Patchwork of U.S. Comprehensive Privacy Laws: Top 10 Trends from the First Half of 2024

On June 20, 2024, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas ordered the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to vacate its guidance that had restricted HIPAA-covered entities’ use of third party online tracking technologies, such as common website advertising and analytics tools. In vacating the guidance, the court held that the agency exceeded its authority by redefining what is considered protected health information (PHI) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). While this order is a defeat for OCR’s guidance on online tracking technologies, regulated companies should react cautiously. The order could be appealed and potentially reversed, OCR could still bring enforcement actions in other circuits advancing their interpretation of PHI, and the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) laws and state privacy laws could still apply.Continue Reading Texas District Court Vacates OCR’s HIPAA Bulletin on Online Tracking Technologies, But Issues Mixed Decision

On March 18, 2024, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) updated its guidance on the use of online tracking technology by covered entities regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and their business associates (together, “regulated entities”). While the updated guidance from OCR seems intended to clarify, and even narrow, the circumstances under which regulated entities’ use of websites and mobile app tracking technologies constitutes a disclosure of Protected Health Information (PHI), it fails to provide clarity on the exact scope, rendering compliance challenging. We summarize the updates to the guidance below and analyze briefly how these updates may impact the use of tracking technologies on unauthenticated and authenticated webpages, and what companies may explore in terms of compliance.Continue Reading OCR at HHS Updates Guidance on Use of Online Tracking Technology by HIPAA-Regulated Entities

On June 16, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a proposed settlement agreement (in the form of a stipulated order) with genetic testing company Vitagene, Inc., now known as 1Health.io (1Health.io), for allegedly misrepresenting its security and privacy practices regarding its data storage, deletion, and usage. The FTC also alleged that the company unfairly changed material privacy policy disclosures without obtaining affirmative consumer consent.Continue Reading FTC Announces Proposed Settlement with 1Health.io Genetic Testing Firm for Privacy and Security Violations

On April 27, 2023, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee signed a far-reaching health privacy law entitled the “My Health My Data Act” (the Act), which extends protections to consumer health data collected by…

Continue Reading Washington State Governor Signs Sweeping Health Privacy Act (My Health My Data Act) into Law