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A federal judge recently dismissed a plaintiff’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) claim, holding that the consumer had given prior express consent to be contacted by her creditor’s collection agents regarding the underlying credit card debt.

Ashley Schwartz-Earp provided her cell phone number to a JC Penney cashier as part of a store credit card

On January 21, U.S. District Judge Jorge L. Alonso dismissed a lawsuit against Facebook for lack of personal jurisdiction, holding that Facebook did not target its alleged biometric collection activities at Illinois residents.  Judge Alonso did not grant plaintiff Frederick Gullen leave to amend. 

The class action complaint, which was filed last August,

Government entities continue to be the focus of cyber attacks, adding fuel to the general perception that government cannot afford the same quality of security as private industry.  The most recent attack targeted personal information of Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security staff.   

Officials report that there is no indication that sensitive information

Since 2014, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been conducting tests on U.S. companies as part of a program aimed at decreasing the United States’ overall susceptibility to cyber threats and impacts.

This program is operated by the National Cybersecurity Assessment and Technical Services (NCATS) team,

As a result of a November 14 cyber attack on VTech’s Learning Lodge app store, approximately 6.4 million child profiles were exposed in addition to approximately 4.9 million parent accounts.  VTech is a retail toy maker that manufactures and sells traditional toys and “smart toys,” such as electronic learning tools with computer capabilities

In October, at the Privacy & Security Forum at George Washington University, Federal Trade Commissioner Terrell McSweeny emphasized that companies that outsource data security to third parties can still be liable in an FTC enforcement action.  This position follows what we have heard previously from the Office of Civil Rights, the agency charged with enforcement