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Scot Ganow

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Scot is a partner in Taft’s Dayton office, and chair of the firm’s Privacy and Data Security Practice.  As a former chief privacy officer and leveraging more than ten years of management and compliance experience in Fortune 500 companies, Scot brings a diverse business background to his privacy and data security practice. Scot has represented clients in a variety of sectors, including consumer reporting, construction, healthcare, and manufacturing.

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Special thanks to Taft summer associate Tanner Wilburn for his significant contributions to this post. 

On July 12, 2024, the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) was published in the EU Official Journal.

This comprehensive legislation establishes the first risk-based regulatory framework for AI systems, with far-reaching implications for businesses using AI. The AI Act is effective August 2, 2024, with the enforcement of the majority of its provisions commencing on August 2, 2026.

Continue Reading The EU AI Act – What Businesses Need to Know

Special thanks to Taft summer associates Tanner Wilburn and Lizzie Dobbins for their contributions to this post. 

On June 20, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas vacated a portion of guidance issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding the use of online tracking technologies. This decision is beneficial to healthcare providers and other entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which use third-party tracking tools on their public-facing websites, but such entities should be cautious to not read the case too broadly.Continue Reading Federal Court Strikes Down HHS Rule on Website Tracking Technologies… To an Extent

Special thanks to Taft summer associate Tanner Wilburn for his significant contributions to this post. 

Earlier this year, we provided a law bulletin on changes coming to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). To recap briefly, in April 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final regulation that modified the HIPAA Privacy Rule to safeguard individuals’ protected health information (PHI) concerning reproductive health care.

The regulations go into effect on June 25, 2024, and those subject to the regulations must comply with the requirements by December 23, 2024. HHS also set a special compliance date of February 16, 2026, for the regulations’ changes involving HIPAA notices of privacy practices (NPPs).

With the law going into effect this week and the compliance deadline coming in six months, we’ve put together a breakdown of what must happen, and when. Continue Reading Six Months to Go: HIPAA Privacy Rule Changes Require Additional Diligence

Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024

11 a.m. – 12 p.m. ET

You read the news every day and maybe even receive notices yourself: data security and privacy compliance is a growing area of concern and risk for businesses. With security incidents on the rise across various industries of all sizes, as well as increased regulation of privacy and security-related issues, evaluating and addressing your current data governance program is a crucial step in protecting your business in the new year. Just…

Continue Reading Webinar: 10 Privacy and Security Resolutions in the New Year

Last year, we discussed the growing focus and increased regulation on data brokers nationwide, including bills in California, Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington. Now, California has a new bill (S.B. 362) that would revamp its requirements on data brokers and provide California residents new rights over their personal information. The bill is now on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk for signature. The purpose of this bill is to address differences between existing data broker requirements and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).Continue Reading California’s New Data Broker Requirements

On May 19, 2023, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed the Montana Consumer Data Privacy Act (the “MTCDPA”) into law, becoming the ninth state to enact a comprehensive consumer privacy act. Montana joins California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Utah, and Virginia with legislation that protects their residents’ personal data.

The MTCDPA will go into effect on October 1, 2024. In preparation for MCTDPA to be signed into law, companies doing business in Montana should start thinking of ways to incorporate the law’s requirements into their existing privacy policies and procedures.Continue Reading Montana Enacts Privacy Law

On May 3, 2023, Utah’s Online Pornography Viewing Age Requirements Act (the “Act”) went into effect. The Act states that website operators must require internet users to prove they are eighteen years of age or older through a “digitized identification card” or third-party age-verification service when accessing websites containing “pornography or other materials harmful to minors.” In other words, to access adult websites in Utah, users must either upload their driver’s license (or other state-issued identification) or subject themselves to third-party age verification through tools such as biometric scanning. Simply clicking “I am 18 or older” is no longer sufficient with this legislation; an individual must now give personally identifiable information, including in some cases, a biometric face scan.Continue Reading Porn, Privacy & Protecting Kids:  States Seek to Balance Individual Rights and Business Interests in New Online Age Verification Laws

As we previously covered in February, there has been an increase in lawsuits, including class actions, filed against website operators in various states (including California, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, and Pennsylvania) for violations of state wiretapping laws or the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (VPPA). Since then, there have been some updates to such pending litigation. For purposes of this post, the pending litigation can be broken out into three categories: (1) Chat window wiretapping claims; (2) Session replay technology claims; and (3) claims under the VPPA.Continue Reading UPDATE: Litigation Related to Website Technology & Data Sharing

In our previous post, “A Primer on Artificial Intelligence and the Law in 2023,” we briefly discussed how the federal government is preparing for legislation and regulation regarding Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) through provisions of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (the “Act”). While no comprehensive federal statute regulating AI has been signed into law, regulatory agencies must contend with the emerging technology under existing laws.Continue Reading Artificial Intelligence: U.S. Federal Considerations

Over the past year, there has been a growing number of lawsuits, including class actions, filed against website operators in various states (including California, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania) for violations of state wiretapping laws or the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 (“VPPA”).Continue Reading Heads Up!  Increasing Litigation Related to Website Technology & Data Sharing