Background

On August 30, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sanctioned eight firms in three actions for cybersecurity failures in their policies and procedures that exposed the personal information of thousands of customers at each firm. These firms included: Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, Cetera Investment Services LLC, Cetera Financial Specialists LLC, Cetera Advisors LLC,

Yesterday (November 26, 2019), a comprehensive federal privacy bill was introduced that would grant individuals broad rights with respect to their data, impose new obligations on data processors, and expand the Federal Trade Commission’s enforcement authority with respect to privacy, as well as allowing for state attorney general enforcement and individual rights of action. The

Today, Vizio, Inc., agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle charges by the FTC and the New Jersey Attorney General that it installed software on its Smart TGVS to collect viewing data on 11 million consumer televisions without the consumers’ knowledge or consent. The $2.2 million payment includes a $1.5 million payment to the FTC,

Fiber Optic cables and UTP Network cablesOn October 27, 2016, the FCC released rules to “empower consumers to decide how data are used and shared by broadband providers.”  In the order, the FCC defines information protected under Section 222 for telecommunications carriers as “customer proprietary information (customer PI)”, to include the following: (1) individually identifiable Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI), (2) personally identifiable information (PII) and (3) content of communications.  The FCC also adopts and explains its multi-part approach to determining whether data has been properly de-identified and is therefore not subject to the customer choice regime adopted by the FCC for customer PI. Much of the rules are modeled after FTC best practices and the White House Administration’s Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.
Continue Reading FCC Adopts Privacy Rules Protecting Broadband and other Telecommunications Customers