Category: Health Data

From Cause of Action, who are representing LabMD in their battle with the FTC: Today, Cause of Action (CoA) is filing an emergency appeal on behalf of LabMD, following a federal judge’s ruling that he lacked jurisdiction even while telling the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) “the public is served by guiding people beforehand rather than beating them…

Cyrus Farivar reports: On Tuesday, an Alaska man became the lead plaintiff in a proposed class-action lawsuit filed against the makers of Family Tree, a Texas-based DNA testing company. In his suit, Michael Cole alleges that months after purchasing a Family Tree at-home genetics kit and joining a “project,” an online forum for people doing related research about…

The University of California – Irvine is notifying patients of a data security breach involving their medical information. On March 26, UC Irvine discovered that one of the computers in the UC Irvine Student Health Center had been infected with a virus.  They subsequently  verified that two other computers also were infected. “The three computers were infected…

Well, only minutes ago I had said Judge Duffey of the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia might still be persuaded by the government’s arguments about jurisdiction, however annoyed he appeared with the FTC. And I was right. He just dismissed LabMD’s complaint, finding that the complaint was not ripe for review because…

If federal judge William S. Duffey, Jr.  in the Northern District of Georgia decides his court has jurisdiction to hear LabMD’s challenge to the FTC’s authority to enforce data security for HIPAA-covered entities, the FTC may be in for a bumpy ride. In a hearing on May 7, Judge Duffey noted how burdensome consent orders…