On October 7, 2020, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) announced that it had assessed a $400 million civil penalty against Citibank, N.A. regarding alleged deficiencies in its enterprise-wide risk management and data governance programs and its internal controls. In particular, the OCC found violations of 12 CFR Part 30, Appendix D
Today, the FTC announced that Equifax, Inc. will pay at least $575 million (and potentially up to $700 million) as part of a proposed global settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and 50 U.S. states and territories. Their complaint alleges that Equifax failed to take reasonable steps to
In our Southeast Financial Litigation Monitor, our own Lindsey Catlett posts about a recent opinion in Southern Independent Bank vs. Fred’s Inc., in which the Middle District of Alabama denied class certification following a data breach which allegedly affected over 2,000 financial institutions across the country. Southern Independent, a community bank located in south
In an opinion issued today (January 25, 2019), the Illinois Supreme Court found that a Six Flags season pass holder can claim a violation of the state’s biometric privacy law by collecting the thumbprint of plaintiff Stacy Rosenbach’s son without permission, even without alleging any actual harm. This is an important ruling that could impact
On Wednesday, March 28, 2018, the Alabama Data Breach Notification Act of 2018 (SB318) was signed into law by the Governor, making Alabama round out the roster of 50 states with data breach notification laws. (South Dakota’s data breach notification was signed by its governor on March 21, 2018, making it the 49
On December 19, 2016, the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas denied a motion to dismiss, ruling that the named plaintiff for a putative class, approximately two thousand former and current employees whose personal information had been compromised as a result if a phishing attack, had alleged sufficient harm for standing under Spokeo
On November 11, 2016, Facebook announced to USA TODAY that it would no longer allow advertisers to exclude specific racial and ethnic groups when placing ads related to housing, credit or employment, according to a statement by Erin Egan, Facebook’s vice-president of U.S. public policy to USA Today. According to the news article, Facebook will also require advertisers to affirm that they will not place discriminatory ads on Facebook, and will plan to offer educational materials to help advertisers understand their obligations.
Continue Reading Facebook to Stop Ads Targeting, Excluding Racial and Ethnic Groups
Courts and litigants find themselves standing on the precipice of Spokeo v. Robins, a monumental Supreme Court decision that could have potentially wide-ranging implications for data breach cases. Given the Court’s holding in Spokeo that a plaintiff must allege and prove more than just “a bare procedural violation” to satisfy the “concrete injury” component of standing’s injury-in-fact requirement, it may prove difficult for data-breach plaintiffs to survive challenges to their allegations of standing. For example, even if a consumer’s data has been stolen, a third party (such as a bank) may ultimately pay for any out-of-pocket losses (for instance, in the case of stolen credit card numbers). Thus, in the absence of any actual monetary losses, which is often the case, plaintiffs are forced to rely on allegations of an increased likelihood of fraud or identity theft. But as the initial influx of post-Spokeo cases make clear, plaintiffs must establish that their risk of future harm is more than speculative, a leap which some courts have been reluctant to take.
Continue Reading Standing on the Precipice: The Actual Injury Requirement After Spokeo
