Introduction and US Legal Framework Flashcards
Data protection authority (DPA)
Official or agency that enforces privacy or data protection laws and regulations.
U.S. has no national data protection authority per se, but several groups oversee privacy matters (FTC, state attorneys general, federal financial regulators).
Data controller
An organization or individual with the authority to decide how and why information about data subjects is to be processed
This entitty is the focus of most obligations under privacy and data protection laws (usually a corporation)
Data subject
An individual about whom information is being processed. E.g. consumer, employee, patient
Data processor
An organization or individual, often a third-party outsourcing service that processes data on behalf of the data controller
- HIPAA - known as “business associates”
- Can delegate out to subsequent data processor
- No data processor or subsequent data processor can exceed scope of processing authority given by data controller
Information privacy
Establishes rules that govern the collection and handling of personal info, such as financial and medical info, government records, or internet activity
Communications privacy
Establishes protection of the means of correspondence, such as postal mail, telephone conversations, and e-mail
Bodily privacy
Establishes protections of a person’s physical being and any invasion thereof, such as genetic and drug testing; body cavity searches; and birth control, adoption, and abortion.
Territorial privacy
Establishes placing limits on the ability to intrude into another individual’s environment, including the home, workplace, and public space.
Fair information practices (FIPs)
Guidelines for handling, storing, and managing personal info properly
Categories of principals and practices associated with each principal:
- The rights of individuals
- Notice
- Choice and consent
- Data subject access
- Controls on the info
- Info security
- Info quality
- The information lifecycle
- Collection
- Use and retention
- Disclosure
- Management
- Management and administration
- Monitoring and enforcement
OECD Guidelines (1980)
Updated in 2013. OECD is an international org including US, Europe, and others.
Most widely recognized framework for FIPs and have been endorsed by the US FTC and many other government orgs.
Examples of personal info and sensitive personal info
Examples of personal info
SSNs, passport numbers, names; street address, telephone number, e-mail address
Examples of sensitive personal info (definition depends on JX and particular regulations)
SSNs, financial info, drivers license numbers, health info
IP addresses are context-dependent – federal agencies operating under Privacy Act don’t consider IP addresses to be personal info, but the FTC says it is personal info when it comes to breaches of healthcare information
Classes of Privacy (Table)
Information privacy
Collection and handling of personal info
Financial info, medical info, government records, internet activity
Bodily privacy
Person’s physical being and any invasion thereof
Genetic testing, drug testing, body cavity searches; birth control, abortion, adoption
Territorial privacy
Intrusion into individual’s environment
Home, workplace, or public place; monitoring via video surveillance, ID checks, use of similar tech and procedures
Communications privacy
Means of correspondence
Postal mail, telephone convos, e-mail
Processing (definition)
Collection, recording, organization, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, consultation and use of personal info
Disclosure by transmission, dissemination or making available in any other form, linking, alignment or combination, blocking, erasure, or destruction of personal info
Sources of personal info
- Public records
- Publicly available info - names and addresses in phone boks ad info published in newspapers and/or other public media (e.g. search engines)
- Non-public info - not generally available or easily accessed due to law or custom; company’s customer or employee database usually contains non-public info
Self-regulation and co-regulation
Legislation: who defines privacy rules?
- Privacy policy of a company or other entity
- Industry association
Enforcement: who initiates enforcement action?
- Data protection authorities
- Other government agencies
- Industry code enforcement
- Affected individuals
Adjudication: who decides whether an org has violated a privacy rule?
- Industry association
- Government agency
- Judicial officer
Privacy professionals should consider all 3 for clear understanding of data privacy responsibilities