Florida state agencies and local governments are now subject to new cybersecurity requirements and prohibitions that went into effect on July 1, 2022. These new amendments to Florida’s State Cybersecurity Act (“the Cybersecurity Act”) impose practically impossible-to-meet notification requirements on state and local governmental entities and prohibit them from making ransom payments. Stepping back to
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Florida Data Privacy Legislation Fails (Again)
By Al Saikali
Florida will not pass a comprehensive data privacy law for the second year in a row. It will be easy for some to speculate that the bill died because the House insisted on a private right of action. That speculation would be wrong. The bill died because there were multiple differing views on the law’s…
The Florida House Passes Data Privacy Legislation (Again)
By Al Saikali
HB 9 Moves to House Floor, Democratic Opposition Emerges
By Al Saikali
It was a busy week for HB 9 in Tallahassee. There was a strike-all amendment, several proposed unfriendly amendments, a House Judiciary Committee meeting, a second strike-all, more unfriendly amendments, and a date for a House floor vote. This post will summarize what happened and provide a roadmap for the final two weeks of the…
HB 9 – why you should care about “share”, and one more consideration
By Al Saikali
In my last post, I wrote about my impression that legislators and staff do not intend for HB 9 to apply to companies that merely “receive” personal information (i.e., those that do not engage in buying or selling personal information). Based on that understanding, I suggested the second threshold of the bill’s scope be…
The Future Comes Into Focus For HB 9
By Al Saikali
Last week, HB 9 (the leading privacy bill on the House side of the Florida legislature) made its first of two committee stops in the House Commerce Committee. The bill passed unanimously. Just as important, however, the hearing revealed a potential misunderstanding as to the scope of the bill.
This blog post will dive into…
Comparing Florida’s Two Leading Privacy Bills
By Al Saikali
The Florida House of Representatives has introduced its version of a comprehensive privacy law (HB 9 – no fancy acronym, unlike the FPPA in the Senate). This blog post will explain the key differences between the House and Senate versions. I also propose two changes to the private right of action that would mitigate…
Florida House Data Privacy Bill Released
By Al Saikali
The Florida House of Representatives has released its version of a proposed comprehensive privacy law. Coming in at 31 pages, HB 9 is sponsored by Representative McFarland (a champion of data privacy on the House side). On quick review, it appears to have some important changes from the version the House considered last year (…
Will The FPPA Be Florida’s First Comprehensive Privacy Law?
By Al Saikali
This blog post will summarize Senate Bill 1864, released on Friday, which is the first “comprehensive” privacy bill to be released in advance of the 2022 Florida legislative session. This is a long post, so I begin with a “too long, didn’t read” section that I’ve found helpful in articles I’ve read. I then…
To Pay or Not To Pay: What New Regulatory Activity Means for Ransomware Victims
By Al Saikali
New regulatory activity may help companies experience fewer ransomware attacks and could impact whether ransoms can be paid to threat actors. The activity includes guidance and sanctions by the Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) and a host of resources provided by the Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. This post describes the activity, its…