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On April 29, 2020, Google and Apple released the first version of their COVID-19 contact tracing tools to public health organizations. The tools, first announced by the companies on April 10th, aim to help public health agencies build apps to track and contain the virus. This article discusses how the contact tracing tools work, the planned two-phase implementation for the tools, and some of the privacy questions around the tools.

How Do the Tools Work?

“Contact-tracing” is not a new concept. The concept is that a society can limit the spread of a virus by tracing whom a person who has tested positive with a virus has recently come in contact with, and notifying those individuals to further prevent the spread of the virus. For example, if John tests positive for the virus and visits a grocery store, part of the contact tracing process would be to find and notify those individuals who came close to him in the grocery store. As you can imagine, contact tracing has historically been a laborious and inaccurate process that requires a manual review of an infected person’s interactions.

Google and Apple’s partnership aims to dramatically improve the contact tracing process by using Bluetooth technology within an infected person’s cell phone to determine whom the person has interacted with and notifying those other people. The partnership is particularly notable because it involves the creation of shared standards between two tech giants that rarely allow for any interoperability. Below is an example of how the tools work:…
Continue Reading Google and Apple Release First Version of Contact Tracing Tools

Authored by Shely Berry and Amy Lawrence.

The creativity with which people around the world have responded, and continue to respond, to this pandemic in addressing the needs of others is remarkable. Virtual educational services, or “EdTech”, are one of the most visible needs as schools around the world transition to online learning. Many companies are highlighting the educational aspects of their current products and services or creating entirely new products and services that fall squarely within the EdTech industry. The goal: to assist those who now find themselves trying to figure out how to be safe at home, “teach children,” and focus on the ninety-nine other tasks that have to be completed at the exact same time.

It’s one thing if you made your online guitar lessons free for a general audience (thank you, Fender), but another if you provide products and services for educational purposes. You may find yourself subject to several state and federal privacy laws. At least 40 states have one or more such laws.

This blog post highlights the state laws that regulate the EdTech industry by aligning with California’s 2014 law, known as the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (“SOPIPA”). Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have SOPIPA-type laws aimed at limiting the use of personal information (and similarly defined terms) collected from students through EdTech products or services.…
Continue Reading When it Comes to Virtual Learning, Privacy Isn’t as Easy as 2 + 2 = 4

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is having some technical issues, to say the least. Small government agencies are notorious for suffering from technological inadequacy and poor information security measures, and the SBA appears to be no exception as it forms a bottleneck between small businesses and federal aid.

As part of its compliance with law, the SBA sent a “Data Breach” notification to as many as 8,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) applicants. The SBA recently expanded the EIDL’s coverage to assist small businesses affected by the fallout of COVID-19. Though the loans were targeted at providing quick relief and funds were supposed to be delivered just a few days after application, many applicants waited weeks and continue to wait. The SBA seemingly did not have the technical processes in place to handle the deluge of applications it received. Unsurprisingly, delays, system crashes, and even a data breach occurred. Specifically, a flaw in the SBA’s loan application portal allowed applicants to see another user’s information if the back button was clicked. The SBA disabled that part of the site and fixed the bug, but not before inadvertent disclosures occurred.

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Continue Reading Technical Woes at the SBA Cause Data Breach and Continue to Cause Delays

Over the last several weeks, while Americans have grown accustomed to working from home, home schooling, and life in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Zoom videoconferencing service has surged in popularity for every imaginable form of gathering, professional and personal. Zoom has become the service of choice – from team meetings to kids’ story times; from religious services to happy hours; from corporate onboarding to every manner of more “intimate” get-togethers for individuals who are following government-mandated social distancing guidelines.

The media and then, in quick succession, regulators, plaintiffs’ lawyers, and even Congress, began to scrutinize, publicize, and take legal action with respect to what were perceived as privacy or data security flaws from the latest technology darling. The result is a still-evolving case study in the classic reactionary American response to privacy and data security concerns, a phenomenon we have seen again and again in this practice space.

What sins has Zoom actually committed? Are they really so “shocking” from a privacy and data security perspective? In violation of law? Just not best practice? Creepy? And has Zoom’s iterative response served as a wet blanket or fuel for the inferno?

In this post, I explore the who, what, why, when, and how of this, at least as much as we can say as we sit here today. And because I am a hopeless nerd, I have chosen the format required by California’s data breach notification law, California Civil Code § 1798.82(d)(1), as the very best way to tell this story. We are going to use this blog post as a jumping off point for a free live and recorded roundtable discussion webinar (using WebEx [insert winking emoji here]) on April 14, 2020, at 12:30 pm Eastern/9:30 am Pacific. You can register here.…
Continue Reading A Big Zooming Mess: A Cautionary Tale

On July 24, 2019, the FTC announced a $5 billion settlement with Facebook to address Facebook’s alleged violations of the FTC Act and its 2012 consent order with the FTC. The settlement comes as no surprise to the privacy community – Facebook has been closely scrutinized by the public and regulators since the Cambridge Analytica data incident in March 2018 and indicated to investors earlier this year that it anticipated a fine from the FTC between $3 and $5 billion.

We have read the complaint, settlement, and press releases issued by the FTC and Facebook, and provide our thoughts below on what it means for business:…
Continue Reading Business Takeaways from the FTC $5 Billion Settlement with Facebook