Social media sites are transforming not only the daily lives of consumers, but also how companies interact with consumers. Here at Morrison Foerster, across all of our practice groups, we are seeing complex, cutting-edge legal issues arising out of social media. As with the Internet boom during the mid-to-late 1990s, social media is generating new legal questions at a far faster pace than the law’s ability to provide answers to such questions. In an effort to stay on top of these emerging issues, and to keep our clients and friends informed of new developments, Morrison Foerster publishes this blog devoted to the law and business of social media.<h2>ABOUT MORRISON FOERSTER</h2>Morrison Foerster is a leading global law firm that transforms complexity into advantage for its clients. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, banks, consulting and accounting firms, and Fortune 100, technology, and life sciences companies. Highlighting the firm’s commitment to client service, leadership in market-changing deals and impact litigation, and values-based culture, Morrison Foerster has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top 10 firms on The American Lawyer’s A-List. Year after year, the firm receives significant recognition from Chambers and The Legal 500 across their various guides, including Global, USA, Asia‑Pacific, Europe, UK, Latin America, and FinTech Legal. Our lawyers passionately care about delivering legal excellence while living our values. Morrison Foerster has a long-standing commitment to creating a culture that respects and celebrates differences, while providing an inclusive environment. The firm has achieved Mansfield Certification Plus since 2018 as a result of successfully reaching at least 30 percent women, communities of color, and LGBTQ+ lawyer representation in a notable number of current leadership roles and committees. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community and society through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education and fostering the wellbeing of children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, enforcing the right to asylum, and safeguarding the environment.

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Aaron is the chair of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group and co-chair of the Interactive + Digital Media Group. He advises clients on a wide range of complex transactions involving intellectual property and technology, including structuring and negotiating strategic licensing, development, collaboration, procurement, and distribution deals.Aaron’s practice focuses on advising both established and emerging companies in a variety of data- and technology-intensive sectors, including software, SaaS, cloud-based technology, digital media (social media, AR/VR, gaming, streaming media, AdTech), AI, healthcare, consumer electronics, e-commerce, other online business models, and mobile applications. He also maintains an active practice counseling companies on branding and marketing, trademark licensing, and content-related transactions, as well as the intellectual property aspects of mergers, acquisitions, asset spin-offs, and private equity investments.He has represented clients such as Autodesk, Meta, OpenAI, Splunk, Konami, Kaiser Permanente, SoftBank, Visa, and Yahoo, among others.Aaron has been recognized by numerous publications for his work on market-defining technology transactions. He is currently ranked by Chambers USA for “Technology Transactions.”Aaron also serves as co-editor of Socially Aware, the firm’s award-winning newsletter and blog devoted to the law and business of social media, and regularly publishes on various IP and technology-related topics. Aaron is also a sought-after speaker on new and emerging areas of law, and is a frequent presenter and panelist at conferences and legal services programs. In addition to his active practice, Aaron regularly provides pro bono assistance to various nonprofit and charitable organizations such as Common Sense Media and the Starlight Children’s Foundation. He is a member of the board of directors of California Lawyers for the Arts.While in law school at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, Aaron served as executive editor of the California Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Following law school, Aaron served as law clerk to the Honorable William H. Orrick and the Honorable Martin J. Jenkins, both United States District Judges for the Northern District of California.

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Aaron is the chair of our Technology Transactions Group. He advises clients on a wide range of complex transactions involving intellectual property and technology, including structuring and negotiating strategic licensing, development, collaboration, procurement, and distribution deals. Aaron’s practice focuses on advising both established and emerging companies in a variety of data– and technology–intensive sectors, including software, SaaS, cloud computing, AR/VR, AI, gaming, healthcare, consumer electronics, social media, e–commerce, other online business models, and mobile applications. He also maintains an active practice counseling companies on the intellectual property aspects of mergers, acquisitions, asset spin–offs, and private equity investments.

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Lawrence Gallick is of counsel in the firm’s Austin office and a member of the Technology Transactions Group.Lawrence focuses his practice on technology transactions and licensing matters. His diverse experience includes advising on SaaS agreements, cross-licensing agreements, research and collaboration agreements, development agreements, and distribution agreements. He counsels a broad range of companies across the software, hardware, life sciences, biotech and FinTech spaces, as well as other entities including universities.He advises clients in connection with general corporate matters including contract negotiations, and leasing and technology placement agreements.Lawrence also serves as co-editor of <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/" target="_blank">Socially Aware</a>, the firm’s award-winning newsletter and blog devoted to the law and business of social media, and regularly publishes on various IP and technology-related topics.Prior to joining the firm, Lawrence was counsel at another major law firm. Before earning his law degree, Lawrence was a web consultant, project manager, and web developer in Portland, Oregon, where he managed and consulted on projects using industry methodologies and performed custom development and integration of content management systems.Lawrence was named a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” in 2015 and 2018–2022, and is licensed in both California and New York. Lawrence earned his J.D. from the University at Buffalo School of Law, where he was the electronic systems editor for the Buffalo Law Review and awarded the ABA-BNA Award for Excellence in the Study of Intellectual Property Law.

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Anthony Ramirez is a partner in the Technology Transactions Group in the New York office of Morrison Foerster.Anthony advises clients on general commercial and transactional matters. He regularly advises companies on the IP aspects of their M&A transactions. His clients include technology, digital media and content for television and music, financial services, and communications companies with diverse intellectual property assets and issues.His practice focuses on the legal aspects of developing, licensing, and commercializing technology and intellectual property, as well as negotiating general commercial contracts, including outsourcing transactions, as well as content and data licenses. He regularly assists clients with legal issues relating to licensing and commercialization of digital media and content, digital content that is distributed over the Internet or streamed, mobile applications and social media, as well as the licensing of recorded music for distribution via digital platforms. Anthony is also experienced with issues relating to open-source software, software development, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud-based technology, and protection of proprietary information.Anthony has extensive experience working on matters involving disruptive technologies, such as blockchain. He has helped fintech clients with general intellectual property issues in connection with terms of service for online financial products and services.Anthony is an integral part of the outside pro bono legal team for nonprofit organizations based in New York, including advising clients on legal issues regarding entertainment, social media, privacy rights, and the negotiation of outsourcing and service agreements. Anthony received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 2009. He received his B.S. from Cornell University in 2004.

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Anthony Ramirez is a partner in the Technology Transactions Group in the New York office of Morrison Foerster. He advises clients on general commercial and transactional matters. His clients include technology, media, and communications companies with considerable intellectual property assets. His practice focuses on the legal aspects of licensing and commercializing technology and intellectual property, as well as negotiating general commercial contracts. He also regularly assists clients with legal issues relating to mobile applications and social media.

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Socially Aware is devoted to the law and business of social media, proactively addressing emerging issues and keeping our clients informed of new developments. We cover fields such as artificial intelligence, privacy and data security, Section 230, intellectual property, and much more.

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For many companies, the main question about cloud computing is no longer whether to move their data to the “cloud,” but how they can accomplish this transition. Cloud (or Internet-based on-demand) computing involves a shift away from reliance on a company’s own local computing resources, in favor of greater reliance on shared servers and data centers. Well-known examples of cloud computing services include Google Apps, Salesforce.com, and Amazon Web Services. In principle, a company also may maintain its own internal “private cloud” without using a third-party provider. Since many companies choose to use third-party cloud providers, however, this article will focus on that cloud computing model.Cloud computing offerings range from the provision of IT infrastructure alone (servers, storage, and bandwidth) to the provision of complete software-enabled solutions. Cloud computing can offer significant advantages in cost, efficiency, and accessibility of data. The pooling and harnessing of processing power provides companies with flexible and cost-efficient IT systems. At the same time, however, cloud computing arrangements tend to reduce a company’s direct control over the location, transfer, and handling of its data.The flexibility and easy flow of data that characterize the cloud can raise challenging issues related to protection of data in the cloud. A company’s legal obligations and risks will be shaped by the nature of the data to be moved to the cloud, whether the data involve personal information, trade secret information, customer data, or other competitively sensitive information. This article describes the special legal considerations that apply when moving personal information to the cloud. It also offers a framework to help companies navigate these issues to arrive at a solution that meets their own legal and business needs.Determine the categories of personal information to be moved to the cloudAs a general principle, personal information includes any information that identifies or can be associated with a specific individual. Some types of personal information involve much greater legal and business risks than other types of personal information. For example, a database containing health information will involve greater risks than a database containing names and business contact information of prospective business leads. Also, financial regulators in many countries require specific security standards for financial information. Accordingly, a cloud computing service that may be sufficient for the business lead data may fail to provide the legally required level of protection for health, financial, or other sensitive types of information.A company will want to develop a strategy that provides sufficient protection to the most sensitive personal information to be transmitted to the cloud. In some cases, a company may elect to maintain certain types of personal information internally, in order to take advantage of more cost-efficient cloud computing services for its less-sensitive data.Identify applicable laws affecting your outsourcing of personal informationCloud computing, by its nature, can implicate a variety of laws, including privacy laws, data security and breach notification laws, and laws limiting cross-border transfers of personal information.(a) Privacy LawsCompanies operating in the United States will need to consider whether they are subject to sector-specific privacy laws or regulations, such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Such laws impose detailed privacy and data security obligations, and may require more specialized cloud-based offerings.Europe-based companies, as well as companies working with providers in or with infrastructure in Europe, will need to account for the broad-reaching requirements under local omnibus data protection laws that protect all personal information, even basic details like business contact information. These requirements can include notifying employees, customers, or other individuals about the outsourcing and processing of their data; obligations to consult with works councils before outsourcing employee data; and registering with local data protection authorities. Similar requirements arise under data protection laws of many other countries, including countries throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas.(b) Data Security RequirementsEven if a company is not subject to these types of privacy laws, it will want to ensure safeguards for personal information covered by data security and breach notification laws. In the United States, these laws tend to focus on personal information such as social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and credit or debit card or financial account numbers. One of the key safeguards is encryption because many (although not all) of the U.S. state breach notification laws provide an exception for encrypted data.In contrast, many other countries require protection of all personal information, and do not necessarily provide an exception for encrypted data. Consequently, companies operating outside of the United States may have broader-reaching obligations to protect all personal information. While data protection obligations vary significantly from law to law, both U.S. and international privacy laws commonly require the following types of safeguards:i. Conducting appropriate due diligence on providers;ii. Restricting access, use, and disclosure of personal information;iii. Establishing technical, organizational, and administrative safeguards;iv. Executing legally sufficient contracts with providers; andv. Notifying affected individuals (and potentially regulators) of a security breach compromising personal information.The topic of data security in the cloud has received significant industry attention. Industry groups, such as the Cloud Security Alliance, have suggested voluntary guidelines for improving data security in the cloud. For example, please refer to the CSA’s Security Guidelines for Critical Areas of Focus for Cloud Computing, available at <a href="https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/download/security-guidance-for-critical-areas-of-focus-in-cloud-computing-v3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/download/security-guidance-for-critical-areas-of-focus-in-cloud-computing-v3/</a>. In Europe, the Cloud Select Industry Group (CSIG), an industry group sponsored by the European Commission, recently issued the Cloud Service Level Agreement Standardization Guidelines, available at <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/cloud-service-level-agreement-standardisation-guidelines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/cloud-service-level-agreement-standardisation-guidelines</a>. The Guidelines recommend contractual stipulations covering (1) business continuity, disaster recovery, and data loss prevention controls; (2) authentication/authorization controls, including access provision/revocation, and access storage protection; (3) encryption controls; (4) security incident management and reporting controls and metrics; (5) logging and monitoring parameters and log retention periods; (6) auditing and security certification; (7) vulnerability management metrics; and (8) security governance metrics. Providers also may choose to be certified under standards such as ISO 27001, although such certifications may not address all applicable legal requirements.(c) Restrictions on Cross-Border Data TransfersA number of countries—e.g., all the European Economic Area (EEA) Member States and certain neighboring countries (including Albania, the Channel Islands, Croatia, the Faroe Islands, the Isle of Man, Macedonia, Russia, and Switzerland), as well as countries in North Africa (e.g., Morocco), the Middle East (e.g., Israel), Latin America (e.g., Argentina and Uruguay), and Asia (e.g., South Korea)—restrict the transfer or sharing of personal information beyond their borders. These restrictions can present significant challenges for multinational companies seeking to move their data to the cloud. Recognizing these challenges, some providers are starting to offer geographic-specific clouds, in which the data are maintained within a given country or jurisdiction. Some U.S. providers have also certified to the U.S.-European Union Safe Harbor program, in order to accommodate EU-based customers. However, as the Safe Harbor only permits transfers from the EU to the United States, it is not a global solution. Accordingly, a company should assess carefully whether the options offered by a provider are sufficient to meet the company’s own legal obligations in the countries where it operates.To complicate matters, international data protection authorities, particularly in the EEA, have expressed concerns about use of the cloud model for personal information. The Working Party 29 (WP29), the assembly of EEA data protection authorities, and many other local EEA authorities have issued guidance about cloud computing, covering purpose and transfer restrictions, notification requirements, mandatory security requirements, and the content of the contract to be concluded with cloud providers. This guidance includes the WP29 Opinion 05/2012 on Cloud Computing, which is discussed further below. The draft Data Protection regulation currently discussed among the EEA Member States reflects such guidance and should be accounted for prior to engaging cloud providers.Review contractual obligations affecting your outsourcing of personal informationIf your company is seeking to outsource to a cloud provider applications that involve third-party data, such as personal information maintained on behalf of customers or business partners, it is important to consider any limitations imposed by contracts with those third parties. Such agreements might require third-party consent to the outsourcing or subcontracting of data processing activities, or may require your company to impose specific contractual obligations on the new provider or subcontractor.Select an appropriate cloud computing solutionCloud services tend to be offered on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, with little opportunity to negotiate additional contractual protections or customized terms of service. As a result, companies may find themselves unable to negotiate the types of privacy and data security protections that they typically include in contracts with other service providers. Companies will need to evaluate whether the contract fulfills their applicable legal and contractual obligations, as discussed above. Beyond that, companies will want to evaluate the practical level of risk to their data, and what steps they might take to reduce those risks.(a)   Public vs. Private CloudBroadly speaking, a private cloud maintains the data on equipment that is owned, leased, or otherwise controlled by the provider. Private cloud models can be compared with many other well-established forms of IT outsourcing and do not tend to raise the same level of concerns as a public cloud model.A public cloud model disperses data more broadly across computers and networks of unrelated third parties, which might include business competitors or individual consumers. While offering maximum flexibility and expansion capabilities, the public cloud model raises heightened concerns about the inability to know who holds your company’s data, the lack of oversight over those parties, and the absence of standardized data security practices on the hosting equipment. Given these challenges, companies outsourcing personal information will want to understand whether the proposed service involves a private or public cloud, as well as evaluate what contractual commitments the provider is willing to make about data security.(b)   Securing Data Before Transmission to the CloudCompanies also may be able to take measures themselves to protect personal information before it is transmitted to the cloud. Some provider agreements instruct or require customers to encrypt their data before uploading the data to the cloud, for example. If it is feasible to encrypt the data prior to transmission to the provider, this may provide substantial additional protections, as long as the encryption keys are not available to the provider.It is also important to account for applicable security requirements. To this effect, several countries in Europe have very specific statutory requirements for security measures, and some regulators have issued detailed security standards for cloud computing providers. Pursuant to the WP29 Opinion 05/2012, all contracts should include  security measures in accordance with EU data protection laws, including requirements for cloud providers on technical and organizational security measures, access controls, disclosure of data to third parties, cooperation with the cloud client, details on cross-border transfer of data, logging, and auditing processing. The recent guidelines from the CSIG recommends the inclusion of the following provisions in processing agreements: (1) standards or certification mechanisms the cloud service provider complies with; (2) precise description of purposes of processing; (3) clear provisions regarding retention and erasure of data; (4) reference to instances of disclosure of personal data to law enforcement and notification to the customer of such disclosures; (5) a full list of subcontractors involved in the processing and inclusion of a right of the customer to object to changes to the list, with special attention to requirements for processing of special or sensitive data; (6) description of data breach policies implemented by the cloud service provider including relevant documentation suitable to demonstrate compliance with legal requirements; (7) clear description of geographical location where personal data is stored or processed, for purposes of implementing appropriate cross-border transfer mechanisms; and (8) time period necessary for a cloud service provider to respond to access, rectification, erasure, blocking, or objection requests by data subjects.(c)   Contract IssuesIn the majority of cloud computing services, the client is the data controller and the cloud provider is the data processor. However, in certain scenarios (in particular Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) in public computing models), the client and the cloud provider may be joint controllers. Under EU guidance, the responsibilities of joint controllers must be very clearly set out in the contract to avoid any “dilution” of legal responsibility.The contract with the cloud services provider needs to set out clearly the roles and responsibilities of the parties. Unlike many outsourcing arrangements, cloud service contracts usually do not distinguish between personal information and other types of data. These contracts may still include at least basic data protection concepts, even if they are not expressly identified as such. At a minimum, companies will want to look for provisions preventing the provider from using the information for its own purposes, restricting the provider from sharing the information except in narrowly specified cases, and confirming appropriate data security and breach notification measures. Various European data protection authorities have underscored that access to cloud data by public authorities must comply with national data protection law and that the contract should require notification of any such requests unless prohibited under criminal law and should prohibit any non-mandatory sharing. Given the difficulty of negotiating special arrangements with cloud providers, it is important to select a cloud offering that is appropriately tailored to the nature of the data and the related legal obligations. It is likely that as cloud computing matures, more offerings tailored to specific business requirements, including compliance with privacy and similar laws, will be made available to companies.Concluding thoughtsWhile cloud computing can substantially improve the efficiency of IT solutions, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses, the specific offerings need to be examined closely. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution to cloud computing, especially for companies operating in highly regulated sectors or internationally. By understanding their legal compliance obligations, companies can make informed decisions in selecting cloud computing services or suites of services that best meet their needs.

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Privacy in the Cloud: A Legal Framework for Moving Personal Data to the Cloud

Privacy in the Cloud: A Legal Framework for Moving Personal Data to the Cloud

For many companies, the main question about cloud computing is no longer whether to move their data to the “cloud,” but how they can accomplish this transition.

From our sister blog, MoFo Tech:Within a decade, analysts say, the “Internet of Things” will have transformed our lives. Billions of Internet-connected devices will monitor our homes, businesses, cars, and even our bodies, using the data to manage everything from appliances to heart monitors. Companies like Google— which recently paid $3.2 billion for smart-thermostat company Nest Labs—are already racing to build the IoT. But businesses face fundamental questions regarding the ownership of data, protecting customer privacy, liability when devices fail, and more.The IoT will connect product developers and manufacturers in countless new ways, creating uncertainty about ownership of and rights to customer data. If a company contracts with a big data vendor to store and process consumer information, for instance, each party will need to know that its partner has the legal rights to collect or share data, says Alistair Maughan, a partner in Morrison & Foerster’s London office who is co-chair of the Technology Transactions Group. Then there is the question of who owns the data. “There is a whole supply chain the law is only beginning to grapple with,” Maughan says. “Manufacturers will need to understand the risks when there aren’t clear government standards.”An area of major interest is how companies will protect customer privacy when so much data is in play. Companies need to make sure that what they say about their use of data collected from connected devices is accurate, complete, and up to date. “There is no one-sizefits-all approach to data security,” says Morrison & Foerster partner D. Reed Freeman Jr., who specializes in privacy matters. “The burden for a company is to consider what kind of data you have and how to protect against reasonably foreseeable, unauthorized access to personal information.”Liability, of course, is a paramount concern when connected businesses adjust their use of data for new business or consumer products, says Stephanie Sharron, a Morrison & Foerster partner and a member of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group. Using vast sets of data to find patterns and targets will leave open all sorts of possibilities for technical and human mistakes. “There are questions about who should bear responsibility for inaccurate inferences or patterns that give rise to harm,” Sharron says. “Or who is responsible if a pattern comes from inaccurate data from a malfunctioning sensor.”Then there is the question of who will manage and monitor the electrical systems needed to operate such vast networks—traditional public utility companies, new electricity market participants, or a combination. “Customers will want more choices to accommodate the new technologies and services they get to use” in the IoT, says Robert S. Fleishman, senior of counsel for Morrison & Foerster and an expert on energy regulation law. “Generally it will be up to state public utility commissions to decide who gets to provide the traffic control function and related activities for these things to operate within the system for distributing energy.” Some state utility commissions have already started to look at reforming their regulations and policies.

Entangled in the Web of Things. By Finding New Uses for Data, the Internet of Things Heralds a Host of Challenges.

From our sister blog, MoFo Tech: Within a decade, analysts say, the “Internet of Things” will have transformed our lives. Billions of Internet-connected devices

Entangled in the Web of Things. By Finding New Uses for Data, the Internet of Things Heralds a Host of Challenges.

Not to be outdone by Florida, California has yet again amended its data security breach law and again in groundbreaking (yet confusing) fashion. On September 30, 2014, California Governor Brown signed into law a bill (<a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1710" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“AB 1710”</a>) that appears to impose the country’s first requirement to provide free identity theft protection services to consumers in connection with certain data security breaches. The law also amends the state’s personal information safeguards law and Social Security number (“SSN”) law. The amendments will become effective on January 1, 2015.Free Identity Theft Protection Services Required for Certain Breaches Most significantly, AB 1710 appears to amend the California breach law to require that a company offer a California resident “appropriate identity theft prevention and mitigation” services, at no cost, if a breach involves that individual’s name and SSN, driver’s license number or California identification card number. Specifically, AB 1710 provides, in pertinent part, that if a company providing notice of such a breach was “the source of the breach”:an offer to provide appropriate identity theft prevention and mitigation services, if any, shall be provided at no cost to the affected person for not less than 12 months, along with all information necessary to take advantage of the offer to any person whose information was or may have been breached.The drafting of this requirement is far from clear and open to multiple readings. In particular, the use of the phrase “if any” can be read in multiple ways. For example, the phrase “if any” can be read to modify the phrase “appropriate identity theft prevention and mitigation services.” Under this reading, the law would impose an obligation to provide free identity theft protection services if any such services are appropriate. The phrase “if any,” however, could be read to modify the “offer” itself. Under this alternate reading, the law would provide that if a company intends to offer identity theft protection services, those services must be at no cost to the consumer. It is difficult to know how the California Attorney General (“AG”) or California courts will interpret this ambiguity. One thing is clear: until the AG or courts opine, the standard will remain unclear.The drafting of the requirement also is not clear in other ways. For example, the statute does not specify what type of services would qualify as “appropriate identity theft prevention and mitigation services.” For example, would a credit monitoring product alone be sufficient to meet the requirement? Or would the law require something in addition to credit monitoring, such as an identity theft insurance element?Nonetheless, state AGs historically have encouraged companies to provide free credit monitoring to consumers following breaches. In addition, even though not legally required, free credit monitoring has become a common practice, particularly for breaches involving SSNs and also increasingly for high-profile breaches. Nonetheless, California appears to be the first state to legally require that companies offer some type of a free identity theft protection service for certain breaches.AB 1710 is particularly notable in its approach. First, the offer of free identity theft protection services will only be required for breaches involving SSNs, driver’s licenses or California identification card numbers. In this regard, an offer of free identity theft protection services will not be required for breaches involving other types of covered personal information, such as payment card information or usernames and passwords. This approach endorses a position that many companies have long held—that credit monitoring is appropriate only when the breach creates an actual risk of new account identity theft (as opposed to fraud on existing accounts). In addition, the offer of free identity theft protection services will only be required for a period of one year (as opposed to, for example, two years). The length of the offer of free credit monitoring has always been an issue of debate, and California has now endorsed a position that a one-year offer is sufficient.Service Providers Directly Subject to Safeguards Requirements AB 1710 also amends the California personal information safeguards law to impose the state’s safeguards obligations directly on entities who “maintain” information, even if they do not own that information. The state’s safeguards standard historically required companies that “own or license” covered personal information about California residents to “implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the information” in order to protect the personal information from unauthorized activity. The existing standard did not apply directly to third parties, such as service providers, that maintain information, but do not own it. Instead, the existing standard required that owners of personal information contractually require nonaffiliated third parties to whom they would disclose such information to take steps to protect the information.AB 1710, however, specifically amends the safeguards law to impose its reasonable security procedures and practices standard directly on entities that “maintain” covered personal information, even if they do not “own or license” the data. Moreover, AB 1710 eliminates the requirement to pass-through security obligations by contract to certain third parties. Specifically, AB 1710 provides that the third-party contract requirement does not apply to a company that provides covered personal information to a third party that will now be directly subject to the safeguards standard (i.e., a third party that “maintains” covered personal information). As a result, the third-party contract requirement would appear to apply only when a company discloses covered personal information to a nonaffiliated third party that will handle such data, but not “maintain” it.New Prohibition on Sale of SSNSFinally, AB 1710 amends the California SSN law to prohibit any person from selling, advertising for sale or offering to sell an individual’s SSN. Moreover, AB 1710 specifically provides that the “[r]elease of an individual’s [SSN] for marketing purposes is not permitted.” This new prohibition on the sale of SSNs, however, will not apply: (1) if the disclosure of the SSN is incidental to a larger transaction and is necessary to identify the individual in order to accomplish a legitimate business purpose; or (2) for a purpose specifically authorized or allowed by federal or state law. Although AB 1710’s limitation on the sale of SSNs is unique among the many state SSN laws, other state SSN laws do include similar prohibitions, such as the Alaska, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina and Vermont laws.Practical Implications for Businesses The California requirement regarding free identity theft protection services for certain breaches adds yet another layer of complexity for a company that suffers a breach. Companies should be prepared to make difficult decisions regarding how to implement the new requirement. For example, companies should consider:<ul><li>Until further guidance is provided by the AG or courts, how will your company interpret the language of the requirement? For example, will your company take the position that AB 1710 does not actually impose a requirement to offer free identity theft protection services?</li><li>What type of “appropriate identity theft prevention and mitigation” services will your company offer when it believes such an offer is required?</li><li>In the event of a breach involving information regarding residents of multiple states, including California, will your company extend an offer of identity theft protection services to residents of states other than California?</li><li>Will your company offer identity theft protection services in connection with breaches involving personal information other than SSN, driver’s license number or California identification card number?</li><li>When your company offers free identity theft protection services, will it provide the offer only for one year? Are there circumstances in which your company will extend an offer for a longer period?</li></ul>As has been historically true, other states may follow California’s lead. As a result, it will be important to monitor state legislative developments, and if a state imposes a similar requirement, determine if it follows a risk-based approach similar to AB 1710.In addition, companies that provide services to others that involve maintaining personal information relating to California residents that is maintained but not owned should be aware that they will be directly subject to the requirements of the California safeguards law. Before AB 1710’s new requirements become effective, such companies should take a fresh look at their security procedures and practices and consider whether they are appropriate and would comply with the California safeguards requirement.