Outside of certain specific contexts, such as health and medical information, specific consent is not required for businesses to collect and use personal information. This way of defining personal information reflects the consumer-protection orientation of U.S. Many laws treat protected information as someone’s name plus some other piece of identifying information, such a Social Security Number. In the U.S., the kind of information that is protected under these laws is often narrowly defined. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act ( COPPA)Įach of these laws defines the personal information at issue differently, creates different enforcement mechanisms, and places unique requirements on consent and disclosure.The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ( FERPA).The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA).These different kinds of personal information are protected under an “alphabet soup” of specific federal laws, including: Federal laws protecting personal information are sector-specific, including personal health information, educational information, children’s information, and financial information. In the U.S., data privacy is protected under a complex framework of federal and state law. What you should know about the law degree for non-lawyers, including who should apply and how it can give you a competitive edge in your career. But no constitutional provision gives individuals a general right of privacy against the government, and certainly, none gives individuals a right of privacy against private actors, such as private employers.ĭownload Our Free Guide to Earning Your Master’s in Legal Studies In a number of cases, the Supreme Court has understood the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to create a privacy right, in particular with regard to sexual privacy. Constitution protects people against certain kinds of government intrusions the Fourth Amendment, for example, protects people against unreasonable government searches. Instead, data privacy is a fragmented legal concept. It can be surprising to learn that there is no overarching federal law governing data privacy. What Is Data Privacy?ĭata privacy, or information privacy, often refers to a specific kind of privacy linked to personal information (however that may be defined) that is provided to private actors in a variety of different contexts. With so much uncertainty, how should organizations tackle data privacy and security compliance? A brief overview of the legal landscape can help clarify how you think about risk management and best practices. Whether it’s a data breach affecting hundreds of millions of people, political disinformation campaigns swaying elections, or nation-state attacks, the question of how personal data is handled is an increasingly urgent one for lawmakers. Recent legal changes are responding to how individual personal data is used, exploited, and stolen. We are living through dizzying changes to both the technology that defines how we live and work and the laws that regulate that technology. Law is notoriously slow to catch up with technology, but when it does, there is often a whirlwind of regulation and contradiction. Hart, counsel and partner-elect at Foley Hoag LLP and part-time lecturer at Northeastern University’s School of Law. This guest post was written by Christopher E.
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