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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

The Florida Legislature is considering a comprehensive privacy law (HB 969) that would fundamentally change the landscape of how/whether companies do business in Florida.  The bill is largely a “cut-and-paste” of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), but in some ways, it goes further than the CCPA and would make Florida’s law the most aggressive privacy law in the United States.  As I have previously described, the bill would create significant privacy rights for Florida residents, including the right to know what personal information companies are collecting about them, the source of that information, how the information is being shared, a right to request a copy of that information, and a right to delete/correct that information.  But the law goes too far – placing a crushing financial burden on most small and medium-sized businesses and creating a private right of action that dwarfs California’s version. This post analyzes the five most significant problems with HB 969 and proposes solutions.
Continue Reading Five Ways To Improve Florida’s Proposed Privacy Law

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

The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision last week in Rosenbach v. Six Flags may have closed the first of what will be several chapters in class action litigation arising from the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).  The court addressed the very narrow issue of what it means for a person to be “aggrieved” under BIPA.  Ultimately, the court held that a violation of the notice, consent, disclosure, or other requirements of BIPA alone, without proof of actual harm, is sufficient for a person to be considered “aggrieved” by a violation of the law.
Continue Reading Rosenbach is the Beginning, Not the End, of BIPA Litigation

On Friday afternoon an Illinois intermediate appellate court decided that the bar for a plaintiff bringing a class action lawsuit under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) is low, creating a conflict with its sister intermediate appellate court. The Illinois Supreme Court is expected to resolve the conflict early next year. How the court resolves the conflict will significantly impact companies doing business in Illinois.
Continue Reading New Biometric Privacy Decision Creates More Risk for Companies Doing Business in Illinois

While the privacy world is focused on the Equifax data breach, another development is taking place that could have a more lasting effect on privacy law.  In the last month, plaintiffs’ lawyers in Illinois have filed over 20 lawsuits against companies that authenticate their employees or customers with their fingerprints.  The lawsuits are based on…