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The Florida Senate’s version of a new comprehensive privacy law (a.k.a. the “Florida Privacy Protection Act” (FPPA)) passed unscathed out of the Senate’s Committee on Commerce and Tourism yesterday. The bill’s sponsor fought off two proposed amendments: one that would have eliminated the private right of action and a second that would have required more than just a revenue threshold for the law to apply. This post describes what makes the FPPA more aggressive than the CCPA, it provides a summary of the Senate Committee hearing, and it shares some late-breaking news about the House version (HB 969).
Continue Reading Senate Version of Florida Privacy Law Moves Forward; House Version Makes Class-Action Lawsuits Even Easier

Yesterday, the Governor of Florida threw his support behind a newly introduced consumer data privacy bill (HB 969) which is very similar to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. The Governor’s support is a significant development given that he and both chambers of the Florida Legislature are Republican and, to date, there has not been any aligned support for a privacy law since the Florida Information Protection Act (FIPA), Florida’s data breach notification law.  Nevertheless, as with the CCPA, the bill proposes a boondoggle for the plaintiffs’ bar in the form of a private right of action for data breaches and statutory damages, which could present a significant obstacle to passage in the bill’s current form, particularly for a fairly business-friendly Florida Legislature.
Continue Reading Florida Throws Its Hat Into the Privacy Ring, And It’s Looking A Lot Like California

Yesterday, in a 26-page opinion, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has weighed in on two important questions in the world of privacy and data breach litigation.  First, does a plaintiff have standing where he was exposed to a substantial risk of future identity theft, even though there was no misuse of his information. The court’s answer is no. Second, what efforts to mitigate this risk does a plaintiff need to undertake to meet the standing requirement.  Here, the court held that the plaintiff essentially manufactured his own injuries (wasted time, lost use of his preferred card, and lost credit card benefits) by voluntarily canceling his credit card, which is not enough to confer standing.
Continue Reading The Eleventh U.S. Circuit Weighs in on Data Breach Standing Issues

The Florida Senate and House of Representatives are considering two bills (SB 1670 and HB 963) that, if adopted, will amend Florida law to create the state’s first comprehensive privacy law (though they do not go nearly as far as the CCPA). The proposed amendments would: (1) prohibit the use of personal data in public records maintained by state agencies for unsolicited marketing purposes, and (2) require companies doing business online to provide notice of their personal data collection/use activities and allow consumers to opt out of the sale of that data to third parties.  This article takes a deeper look at the proposed amendments, provides some context for them, and discusses the likelihood that they will become law. (Spoiler alert: the proposed amendments are significant and well-intended, but currently contain some flaws that, if addressed, create a good chance of the amendments becoming law).
Continue Reading Florida’s Proposed Privacy Legislation: An In-Depth Analysis for Corporate Counsel

An identical version of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) has been introduced in the Florida Senate.  The bill includes the same private right of action.  The Illinois BIPA has become an enormous revenue earner for the plaintiff’s bar, who have filed gotcha lawsuits against companies seeking millions of dollars on the ground that the companies did not comply with all of the technical requirements of the law.  I suspect that is a similar driving force behind the Florida version.
Continue Reading Could Florida be the Next BIPA State?

Earlier this year, Bloomberg Law reported that Edelson PC, a leading plaintiffs’ firm in privacy and data security law, filed a class action lawsuit against a regional law firm that had vulnerabilities in its information security systems.  This week, the identity of the firm and the allegations of the lawsuit were unsealed.  The case,…

The SEC recently agreed to a $1,000,000 settlement of an enforcement action against Morgan Stanley for its failure to have sufficient data security policies and procedures to protect customer data. The settlement was significant for its amount. The true noteworthiness here, however, lies not in the end result but the implications of how it was…