David M. Brown of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads LLP writes: The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Clapper v. Amnesty International USA, 133 S. Ct. 1138 (2013), continues to be relied on by federal courts to hold that “mere loss of data” or “increased risk of identity theft” in a data breach case does not constitute…
Category: Health Data
Patients of Kansas City health care provider file class action lawsuit over dumped records
Garrett Haake reports: The disposal of a still-unknown number of patient records in a dumpster outside Research Medical Center last month could soon become an even more costly mistake for physicians group Midwest Women’s Healthcare Specialists. This week, a Kansas City attorney filed a class action lawsuit against the group on behalf of some of the women…
UK: South Central Ambulance Service staff data breach
BBC reports: The personal data of thousands of ambulance service staff has been accidentally published online, it has been revealed. The data breach by South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) included publishing the age, sexuality and religion of almost 3,000 staff members. The information has been revealed by a BBC Radio Berkshire Freedom of Information request…
Update: All 62,000 workers at UPMC may now be victims of data breach
Robert Zullo reports: The scope of a data breach at UPMC that may have exposed Social Security numbers, addresses, salary and bank account information to identity thieves has now widened to potentially include all of its 62,000 workers, the health-care conglomerate informed employees in an e-mail today. “Outside of the 817 confirmed victims of tax…
Advocate Health Escapes Class Action Over Data Breach
Law360 reports: An Illinois state court on Tuesday dismissed a putative class action claiming Advocate Health and Hospitals Group was responsible for breaching class members’ privacy when four laptop computers containing patient information were stolen from administrative offices.The court ruled the plaintiffs couldn’t show they’d actually been harmed or that their data was stolen or…
Los Angeles County moves to require computer encryption after medical data breach
Abby Sewell reports: Following a break-in at a county health contractor’s office that led to the theft of computers containing personal information about more than 342,000 patients, Los Angeles County supervisors moved to tighten protocols for protecting data. The county already requires that workers’ laptops be encrypted. The supervisors voted Tuesday to extend that policy…