Recently, there has been a significant level of attention given to data protection and privacy matters on the Continent, and in the just the past year, we have seen new laws proposed or enacted in places like Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and of course South Africa, although prior to that, places like Morocco, Ghana and Mali sought fit to regulate in this space, passing their own data protection laws. In 2014, the African Union adopted its…

In a new post on the Covington Digital Health blog, our colleagues discuss California Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s recent settlement against Glow, Inc., resolving allegations that the fertility app had “expose[d] millions of women’s personal and medical information.” The post explains the allegations and settlement terms, as well as takeaways for providers of digital health apps. For instance, the settlement highlights the sensitivity of health data, even if that data is not protected under…

On Monday, the California Attorney General (“AG”) proposed a third set of modifications to the recently enacted California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) regulations.  Interested parties have until October 28 to file comments in response. These proposed modifications are the latest effort in an extensive rulemaking process that has lasted more than a year.  Most recently, on August 14, the California Office of Administrative Law (“OAL”) formally approved the AG’s initial set of CCPA regulations,…

FCC Chairman Pai announced today that the FCC will move forward with a rulemaking to clarify the meaning of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA).  To date, Section 230 generally has been interpreted to mean that social media companies, ISPs, and other “online intermediaries” have not been subject to liability for their users’ actions.…

On September 30, 2020, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (“MS-ISAC”) released a joint guide synthesizing best practices to prevent and respond to ransomware.  This guide was published the day before OFAC and FinCEN released their coordinated guidance on ransomware attacks that we previously summarized here. Ransomware is malware that encrypts data on a victim’s device, thus rendering the data inaccessible, until a ransom is…

The Department of Justice has released a draft bill to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, joining the chorus of voices seeking to limit the statute’s liability protections (covered here, here, here, and here).  The DOJ’s draft bill incorporates recommendations from its June 2020 report analyzing Section 230, as well as President Trump’s Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship.  According to Attorney General William Barr, DOJ’s…

On June 22, 2020, the South African President announced that certain provisions of POPIA would take effect on July 1, provisions which most regard as essential to the statute, such as those imposing conditions on the lawful processing of personal information, procedures for handling complaints, and general enforcement provisions. Only days later, the South African Information Regulator issued his own statement welcoming the coming into force of these crucial provisions, including those giving the regulator the…