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There is no doubt that social media has its benefits, especially for medical practices that have come to use it for marketing and advertising.  However, risks are lurking.  On October 2, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) entered into a $10,000 settlement with a dental practice (the “Practice”) for disclosing protected health information of a patient when responding to a review on a Yelp page.
Continue Reading OCR Fines Dental Practice $10,000 For Social Media Disclosures

In March of this year, we told you that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in ACA Int’l. v. FCC, wherein the court set aside two FCC interpretations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA. Specifically, the court ruled that the FCC’s interpretation as to what constitutes an autodialer under the TCPA was unreasonably expansive, and that the FCC’s treatment of reassigned numbers was also overly broad.

On May 22, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, issued a decision further restricting the scope of the TCPA. By way of reminder, the Congress passed the TCPA in 1991 in an effort to curb robo calls.  The case involved calls made by a debt collector to a former Comcast customer.  She sued, claiming that the calls were impermissible under the TCPA.  An essential aspect of the TCPA claim at issue was that the call must be made through the use of an “automatic telephone dialing system”, or ATDS, as defined in the statute.
Continue Reading District Court Gives Narrow, Reasonable Scope to TCPA

On March 28, Alabama’s governor signed into law a data breach notification law.  It is the last state in the country to do so, closely trailing South Dakota.   Fifteen years ago, California was the first state to enact a data breach notification law.  The Alabama law applies to electronically stored “sensitive personally identifying…

On March 16, a year and a half after hearing oral argument, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a long-awaited decision overturning two of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) far-reaching interpretations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA). A number of regulated entities filed an action against the FCC challenging several of the FCC’s conclusions in a 2015 order related to cell phones. 
Continue Reading D.C. Circuit Reins in FCC’s Overbroad TCPA Interpretations

Yesterday, South Dakota’s Governor signed into law “An Act to provide for the notification related to a breach of certain data and to provide a penalty therefor.”  Under the Act, when a “breach of system security” involves personal or protected information, the holder of the information must notify affected residents within 60 days and, if…

Many organizations struggle with whether to permit employees to use their own electronic devices (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, laptops) to conduct business on behalf of the organization.  In addition to discovery challenges in the event of litigation, the use of individual devices can also present significant security concerns and regulatory compliance issues.  In January, the Sedona Conference Working Group Series issued a public comment version of “Commentary on BYOD: Principles and Guidance for Developing Policies and Meeting Discovery Obligations.” Comments to the public comment version must be submitted by March 26, 2018.
Continue Reading Welcomed Draft Commentary from the Sedona Conference on BYOD