January’s Privacy Blizzard

The start to 2019 provided scant respite from the frenetic pace of privacy and cybersecurity developments. Already this year, regulators have amended and enforced existing regulations; courts have issued significant interpretations of law; and legislators have proposed new rules aimed at increasing privacy obligations and liability for businesses. This alert highlights the pressing cybersecurity and data privacy updates from the month of January and explains what they mean for companies.

• Google recently received the largest fine issued under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), while in the US, a district court judge rejected a proposed settlement over the Yahoo! data breach. Both of these developments indicate that the costs of not complying with cybersecurity and privacy laws can be steep and longstanding.
• That said, in another significant US district court opinion, the limits on private suits in regard to data breaches are coming into tighter focus.
• State legislatures and self-regulatory organizations are actively updating existing rules or looking to pass new ones that increase privacy and cybersecurity obligations on companies.

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