When Did You Last Think About Your Privacy Policy? FTC And Class Action Plaintiffs Take Aim In Data Breach Actions

Almost daily, headlines announcing data breaches exposing consumer personal information to identity thieves are becoming more and more common. Recent regulatory and consumer class actions filed on the heels of these breaches illustrate that while the risk of a cyberattack from outside the company is real, a more insidious danger may lurk within:  the company's own privacy policy.

Both the Federal Trade Commission and private plaintiffs' class action attorneys have filed actions against companies that experienced data breaches, claiming that the companies' privacy policies misrepresented the adequacy of their security measures and that the defendants are liable for violating the terms of their own policies.