Regulation

The Home Depot data breach may be the largest in the U.S. yet, affecting not only millions of customers in the U.S., but also shoppers at its 180 stores in Canada. Home Depot said customers who shopped at its U.S. and Canadian stores as far back as April were exposed, meaning the breach extended for more than four months including the busy summer season.

In the first half of 2014, at least 96 significant data breaches were reported, compromising more than 2.2 million records. Of these breaches, at least 46 involved records that may have contained Social Security Numbers (SSNs). What the affected businesses may not know is that the mere collection of SSNs may have put them in violation of state laws, in addition to the liability they may now face for having failed to protect the SSN information.

Congress enacted the ADA "to remedy widespread discrimination against disabled individuals." The salutary effect of the ADA cannot be understated. However, many business owners and operators might, at the same time, rightly ask whether there are any limits to the Act's reach.

Online service providers often collect user data for marketing, which frequently includes sharing the information with third parties. Consumers and web users who find this transmission of data an invasion of privacy can, with the help of the plaintiffs' bar, sue under various privacy statutes for alleged damages arising out of this practice.

Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are putting new pressure on Congress to update a 28-year-old law that governs how the federal government can obtain U.S. citizens' electronic data.

For employers, social media sites present a potential treasure trove of information on applicants, but mining this information for use in recruiting, hiring, firing and monitoring of employees is fraught with risk. Nonetheless, some studies show that 40% of employers search social media during the hiring process. While there are not currently any laws in the United States forbidding employers from gleaning information from social media, improper use can get them into trouble.

With schools back in session, now is the time for employers to review hiring, payment and scheduling practices for workers under the age of 18. The myriad federal and state child labor laws that employers must heed range from work permit requirements to the hours and type of work performed, all of which vary based on an employee's age and whether school is in session.

Never before has so much personal data been available anywhere but also completely outside the immediate control of the person who created it. Companies like Google and Facebook are the entities responding to government search warrants and subpoenas for individuals' personal information. Federal courts continue to struggle ' and sharply disagree ' over the scope of Fourth Amendment protections for this data.