Data Privacy And Security Legal Reform, And Plaintiffs' Bar White Paper The Focus Of IAPP Panel

A panel on legal reform in the area of privacy and data security at this week's IAPP Summit provided an opportunity for a discussion between businesses and regulators, as well as for the launch of a white paper on the activities of the plaintiffs' bar in this area that Reed Smith prepared for the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR).

The panel, "Lessons in Liability: The US Privacy Landscape and Proposals for Reform," featured Tanya Madison, Chief Privacy Counsel at TD Bank; Howard Beales, Professor of Strategic Management and Public Policy at the George Washington School of Business, and former Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission; and Oriana Senatore, Vice President of Policy & Research at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform.

The International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit is taking place in Washington this week.

The panelists explored how the current data privacy and security regime is ripe for reform, as businesses face challenges, from indefatigable plaintiffs' attorneys, to the conflicting patchwork of state breach laws, and all the state and federal regulators in between. Reforms that were discussed included a national data breach law that would preempt those of the states; harmonization of state laws so that businesses would not be expected to comply with more than 50 differing standards; clarifying the meaning of harm; and performing better analyses of the risk of harm to consumers.

Senatore discussed the white paper, "Engineered Liability: The Plaintiffs' Bar's Campaign to...