In this week's post, we see as organizations continue to collect private data for helping slow the spread of COVID-19 without much guidance and in different manners in accordance with local regulations, the FTC is discussing the need for a comprehensive federal privacy law.

Plus, social tracing has helped to stop the spread of coronavirus in some countries and tech companies are creating apps to make suck tacking easier, as privacy concerns appear disregarded.

FTC Reiterates Need for Comprehensive Federal Privacy Law

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the nation, Christine Wilson, a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission recently stated that it is imperative that Congress work toward passing a comprehensive federal privacy law that would preempt existing state laws. 

As efforts to “flatten the curve” or slow the spread of the virus has increasingly worried privacy experts whom fear that private date collection measures encroach or even erode away an individual’s right to privacy protection. COVID-19’s rapid spread across the nation continues to expose the challenges of federalism and has now revealed how states may respond to crises in very different ways depending on the needs of their constituents, their own supplies and resources, and under the leadership or personality of their respective governors.   

As such, Commissioner Wilson’s call for Congress to move on a federal privacy law bill is especially timely and relevant, particularly as the law would have dictated and governed how the data currently being collected by employers, health officials, and governments would be protected.   

Read the full article here.

The Troubling Trade-Off Between Social Tracing and Privacy

As the global coronavirus pandemic continues to rage across the world, many countries have begun to weigh the trade-off between aggressive contact tracing and individual privacy.  While many health experts credited aggressive social tracing to be the reason for lower death tolls in Germany and China as compared to counterparts like the United Kingdom and the United States, which did not practice social tracing, many wonder at what cost to privacy will new efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 come.

For months now, technology giants like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have all began to provide services that allow users to “screen” themselves for coronavirus symptoms.  For example, Apple teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the White House to offer a mobile application and website that offered itself as a resource and screening application for COVID-19.  

Find the full article here.

Click to read the previous Weekly IP Buzz on Thriving Attorney.

For more posts, see our Intellectual Property Law Blog.

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In addition to Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas. Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer.