Privacy and Security Law Blog : Privacy & Security Law Blog : Davis Wright Tremaine LLP : Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Portland and Anchorage Law Firm

Posted by Anne Shelby

Could this be the year that Congress enacts comprehensive data security and breach notification legislation? As the seemingly endless stream of news stories announcing the latest breaches continue, Members of Congress consistently voice their support for uniform national laws. Washington insiders and observers have expressed divergent predictions: some are optimistic while acknowledging the challenges of such legislation, while others are less so, often pointing to the fact that similar circumstances surrounded the proposed CAN-SPAM Act, which took four years to become law.    

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Posted by Ronald London

Eight federal regulatory bodies have come together to jointly initiate a new rulemaking that seeks comment on proposed rules that would adopt a model privacy form for financial institutions to use as the notice that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) requires them to provide new customers and to existing customers on an annual basis. The GLBA requires the notice to set forth the institution’s information sharing practices and the consumer’s right to opt out of certain types of such information sharing. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) is the first step in implementing Section 728 of the Financial Services Regulatory Relief Act of 2006, which amended the GLBA to require the agencies to adopt a privacy notice form that is succinct and comprehensible to consumers, allows them to compare easily the privacy practices of financial institutions, and can be easily read. 

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Posted by Joe Addiego

Another version of the Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act, aka the Spy Act (H.R.964), has been drafted and is set to make its rounds through the House. This version of the Spy Act is the third time such a law has been circulated. The first two times, they passed the House but were not approved by the Senate.

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Posted by Randy Gainer

In El-Masri v. United States, No. 06-1667 (4th Cir. March 2, 2007), a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of Mr. El-Masri's claims related to his "extraordinary rendition" by the CIA. The Court held that El-Masri could not litigate his claims against the CIA and other parties because the central facts of his case were privileged pursuant to the state secrets privilege. Slip Op., 20. The Court's concluded that the "very subject matter" of the rendition program was so secret El-Masri's claims had to be dismissed despite:

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