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Zachary Heck

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Zach’s practice focuses on privacy and data security. Specifically, Zach assists clients in the areas of privacy compliance, defense litigation, class action defense and guidance in the aftermath of an information security event, including data breach. Zach has experience advising clients with respect to FTC investigations, federal privacy regulations such as HIPAA, FCRA, TCPA, and GLBA, as well as state laws governing personally identifiable information. For his clients, he also provides regulatory analysis, risk management, policy development, training and audits.

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Last week, the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 2273:  the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (“CAADCA”).  CAADCA is an online safety bill, which contains unique privacy requirements to protect minors under the age of 18.

Covered Businesses:  Covered businesses under the bill include any “business,” as defined by the California Consumer Privacy Act, “that provides an online service, product, or feature likely to be accessed by children.”  This means that if your company conducts business in California and (a) has an annual gross revenue of more than $25 million; or (b) alone or in combination, buys, receives for commercial purposes, sells, or shares for commercial purposes the personal information of more than 50,000 consumers, households, or devices; or (c) derives 50% or more of its annual revenue from selling consumers’ personal information, then you will need to evaluate whether your products or services must also address CAADCA requirements.
Continue Reading Child’s Play: Latest California Bill Creates Significant Increase in Regulation for Covered Businesses Collecting Personal Data of Children

Employers have various interests in monitoring employees’ electronic activity on company systems. With an increasing number of businesses allowing remote work throughout and following the Covid-19 pandemic, some companies have sought to implement technical means to keep an eye on their employees’ online activity.  For example, employers may want to monitor this activity as a means to manage productivity and performance.  Enter: “Bossware.” …
Continue Reading Paying the Cost to be the Boss(ware): Considerations Surrounding Employee Monitoring Technologies

We are officially six months away from the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) taking effect and amending the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”).  Even for companies that have grown comfortable with requirements under the CCPA, the CPRA changes require planning and preparation.  With CPRA taking effect on January 1, 2023, here are six tips to begin that preparation:…
Continue Reading Are You Ready for CPRA? 6 Tips for the Final 6 Months

On Friday, June 3, 2022, a bipartisan group of lawmakers published a discussion draft for the proposed American Data Privacy and Protection Act (the “ADPPA”).  The ADPPA is a draft bill that has yet to be introduced in the U.S. House or Senate, which means that any provision is subject to amendment.  However, even in draft form, the ADPPA is a notable advance in the efforts for a federal privacy law with sponsorship from both democrats and republicans, as well as members of the U.S. House and Senate.
Continue Reading What is the American Data Privacy and Protection Act?

It was not long ago that data privacy was an afterthought for many companies, and in some regards, it may still be an afterthought. Since 2018, major laws and regulations governing companies’ collection, use, and disclosure of personal information have been enacted, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) (amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, and soon to be joined by similar state privacy laws in Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Virginia, and Utah), Strengthening American Cybersecurity Act, and state data breach notification laws. …
Continue Reading The Changing Landscape of Privacy and Data Security in Mergers and Acquisitions

One year ago this week, we posted a blog explaining that the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) issued a framework of seven best practices that insurers should adopt, including a recommendation that insurers stop paying ransom payments in response to ransomware. Now, North Carolina has enacted a statute that not only forbids its public entities from paying ransoms, but also prohibits public entities from communicating with ransomware threat actors. Instead, North Carolina public entities, including public schools and universities, are required to consult with the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT).
Continue Reading To Pay the Ransom or Not to Pay the Ransom? North Carolina Tells its Public Entities the Answer is an Emphatic NO

You may have heard of a security vulnerability from December 2021 called Log4j that allows attackers to remotely gain control of a vulnerable device. You may also think this is old news and no longer an issue.  Wrong. According to an April 26, 2022 report from researchers at the cybersecurity company Rezilion, there are currently over 90,000 vulnerable internet-facing applications and more than 68,000 servers that are still publicly exposed. That’s right – four months after the vulnerability was disclosed, a majority of affected open-source components remain unpatched and companies continue to use vulnerable versions of this tool. So, what is it anyways and do you need to take any action to mitigate the risk?
Continue Reading Apache Log4j Security Vulnerability Is STILL a Problem – What is it, Who Does it Impact, and Should I do Anything About It?

The Colorado Privacy Act (“CPA”) takes effect July 1, 2023, and will provide express consumer rights, as well as controller and processor obligations, relating to personally identifiable information of Colorado consumers. This month, the Office of the Colorado Attorney General (the “Office”) outlined the pre-rulemaking considerations for the CPA (“Pre-Rulemaking Considerations”), in an effort to educate regulated entities on the trajectory of this new law, and how such entities may address the upcoming requirements. The Pre-Rulemaking Considerations were also forecasted in Colorado AG Phil Weiser’s address to the International Association of Privacy Professionals 2022 Global Privacy Summit.
Continue Reading Colorado AG Explains Rocky Mountain Way for Data Privacy Law

This week, the new rules for personal data transfers to countries outside the United Kingdom (“UK”) went into effect. As of March 21, 2022, businesses transferring personal data from the UK to countries outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) need to analyze their data flows and update their agreements involving data transfer practices to reflect the UK Data Protection Authority’s (“ICO”) new standard contractual clauses.

Under both the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018, businesses are required to implement certain safeguards when transferring personal data outside the UK to countries “without an adequate level of data protection.” Standard contractual clauses (“SCCs”) are largely used to validate these types of transfers in the European Union as permitted under GDPR. However, following the “Brexit” transition period that concluded on December 31, 2020, GDPR no longer applied to the UK. Further, when the European Union revised SCCs in June 2021, the changes did not apply in the UK, and companies were left with confusion on how to effectuate personal data transfers outside the UK.
Continue Reading New Personal Data Transfers out of the UK: Like the GDPR, but Different

On Nov. 4, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced that it is suspending the current iteration of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program (CMMC) in order to streamline the size and scope of required administrative, technical, and physical controls for businesses contracting with DoD. Originally, CMMC was designed to take full effect in 2025 by requiring every defense contractor responsible for processing controlled unclassified information (CUI) to obtain certification from an approved third-party auditor indicating satisfaction of one of five levels of certification. Implementation of CMMC is now halted until DoD has completed a revision to the program intended to strategically meet the needs and capabilities of industries conducting business with the government. As the Office of Under Secretary of Defense described it, the goal is to make cybersecurity requirements “streamlined, flexible, and secure.”

In its place, DoD intends to promote CMMC 2.0, which will reduce the certification model from five levels to three. CMMC 2.0 will remove additional controls added under the initial program and rely primarily on those set forth in NIST 800-171. All contractors required to meet Level 1 (foundational, with 10 required cybersecurity practices and annual self-assessments) will be able to self-attest satisfaction of associated requirements. Level 2 (advanced, with 110 required practices aligned with NIST 800-171) will take a bi-furcated approach to certification with some priority contractors needing to participate in the audit process, while a subset of non-priority contractors will be able to self-attest satisfaction. In the coming weeks, DoD will announce the approach for Level 3 (expert, with at least 110 required practices aligned with NIST 800-171), which will likely be subject to the audit process as well as heightened requirements.
Continue Reading See ya, CMMC. Hello, CMMC 2.0: DOD Announces Suspension of Current Information Security Certification Program