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Liisa Thomas

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Liisa Thomas, a partner based in the Chicago and London offices, is Leader of the firm's Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice Group.

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Companies transferring personal data out of the EU or UK are reminded of key deadlines approaching for the contracts that govern these transfers. When the European Commission adopted the new Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) in 2021, it set a deadline of December 27, 2022 for existing contracts under the old SCCs. This means that by December 27, 2022 onward, all existing contracts using the old SCCs will need to be replaced by the new terms.…

Continue Reading Deadlines for EU and UK Standard Contractual Clauses Approaching

Firefly Games agreed to take corrective action in response to the Children’s Advertising Review Unit’s allegations that the company had violated COPPA by inaccurately (and confusingly) explaining its privacy practices. The app in question, LOL Surprise! Room Makeover, featured dolls and characters intended for children and animated characters. It also included content directed to adult users. CARU concluded as part of its routine reviews that, inter alia, the app was “mixed audience.” As such, the app needed to comply with not only CARU’s guidelines, but the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act as well.…

Continue Reading Children’s App Settles with CARU Over COPPA and Guideline Violation Allegations

Following, by a day, a privacy-related claim challenge brought against another advertiser, the National Advertising Division found that advertiser DuckDuckGo had sufficiently substantiated its privacy claims. These cases are significant reminders in two ways. First, that claims made about privacy and security can be viewed through an advertising lens and examined to see if they are properly substantiated. Second, that the NAD, the self-regulatory body that actively examines truth and accuracy of advertising, is looking at privacy claims. As those familiar with the NAD are aware, it refers those who do not cooperate to the FTC for priority action to examine if there have been violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act.…

Continue Reading NAD Examines Privacy Statements Made By DuckDuckGo in Online Ads

The National Advertising Division, a self-regulatory body that examines the truth and accuracy of advertising claims, recently examined privacy claims made by Brave, Inc. Using the same analysis given to other advertising claims, the NAD analyzed Brave’s statements about consumer privacy. It assessed both the implied as well as the express claims made by the company as well as the extent to which the substantiation Brave had for the claims supported those claims.…

Continue Reading NAD Brings False Advertising Claims Over Privacy Representations

With six months before the first of the new US state general privacy laws go into effect, there are several steps companies can take now to begin to prepare. Unfortunately there are some parts of compliance that will be impacted by regulations that have either not been drafted, or if drafted, remain unfinalized. What, then, can companies do now? Familiarizing themselves with the types of requirements and beginning to address and develop mechanics for those requirements is a good start. Fortunately for most, these will not be new, as they are conceptually covered by CCPA, GDPR, or both.…

Continue Reading Preparing for US State Privacy Law Compliance: The Six Month Mark

The New York Attorney General recently announced a data security-related settlement with Wegmans Food Markets. The issue arose in April 2021 regarding a cloud-based incident. At that time a security researcher notified Wegmans that the company had an Azure cloud storage container that was unsecured. Upon investigation, the company determined that the container had been misconfigured and that three million customer records had been publicly accessible since 2018. The records included email addresses and account passwords.…

Continue Reading Wegmans Settles With NYAG for $400,000 Over Data Incident

As we pass the half-way mark of 2022, many are reflecting on their privacy compliance progress. One area that seems to be a constant battle is training. How much is needed? What kind of training? What are expectations from regulators around training?…

Continue Reading Privacy and Cybersecurity Training: Addressing Regulatory Concerns

In a recent letter to the UK law society, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office and the National Cyber Security Centre have provided lawyers with advice about ransomware payments. The two agencies cautioned lawyers that such payments would not help “protect” the data, mitigate the risk to individuals, or result in a lower ICO penalty in the event of a regulatory investigation. Instead, they stated in a release that accompanied the letter, lawyers “should not advise clients to pay ransomware demands should they fall victim to a cyber-attack.”…

Continue Reading UK ICO and NCSC Issue Caution About Making Ransomware Payments

In this third post of our ongoing series, we examine key takeaways for companies in light of the recently released draft CPRA regulations. Today’s focus is on contractual requirements. (Visit here for information about collection and notice under the draft regulations, and here for information about choice.)…

Continue Reading What Should We Do About the Draft CPRA Regulations?: Contracts