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Submitted via IRC for Bytram
This seems so wrong on so many counts I am at a loss for [printable] words.
Georgia Supreme Court Rules that State Has No Obligation to Protect Personal Information
Almost exactly one year after the stringent European General Data Protection Regulation came into effect (May 25, 2019), the Supreme Court of the state of Georgia has ruled (May 20, 2019) that the state government does not have an inherent obligation to protect citizens' personal information that it stores.
The ruling relates to a case that dates back to 2013. A Georgia Department of Labor employee inadvertently emailed a spreadsheet containing the names, Social Security numbers, telephone numbers and email addresses of 4,457 people who had applied for benefit to about 1,000 people.
Thomas McConnell, whose details appeared on the spreadsheet, filed a putative class action against the Department of Labor, alleging negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and invasion of privacy. That case has progressed through the legal system to the Supreme Court, and has been dismissed (PDF).
While the Supreme Court has not ruled that there can never be an obligation to protect citizens' data, it has ruled that the obligation is not automatic -- and in the McConnell case, there were no separate requirements to provide the obligation.
McConnell had alleged negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and invasion of privacy by public disclosure of private facts by the Department of Labor. Each of these claims has been rejected. The first to go was 'negligence' -- dismissed because there is no requirement in law to protect the data of benefit claimants. Furthermore, McConnell's claim that Georgia recognizes a "common law duty 'to all the world not to subject others to an unreasonable risk of harm'" (Bradley Center, Inc. v. Wessner; 1982) does not, according to this ruling, set a precedent.
Furthermore, the existing identity theft statute does not explicitly require anything from data storer, while the statute restricting disclosure of social security numbers only applies to intentional disclosures and not accidental exposures as appeared here.
The fiduciary duty claim was then dismissed because no public officer stood to gain from the incident, and there was no special relatoinship of confidence between McConnell and the Department.
Finally, the allegation of an invasion of privacy was rejected. The Supreme Court ruled that "the matter disclosed included only the name, social security number, home telephone number, email address, and age of individuals who had sought services or benefits from the Department. This kind of information does not normally affect a person's reputation, which is the interest the tort of public disclosure of embarrassing private facts was meant to remedy."
[...] Venkat Ramasamy, COO of FileCloud, agrees: "Of course, public institutions should care and protect their stakeholders' data (I would say it is a reasonable expectation -- very similar to protecting the rights of personal property, freedom of speech and so on). I think it is high time to have federal privacy law which can be modeled after the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA)."
Related: One Year on, EU's GDPR Sets Global Standard for Data Protection
Related: State vs. Federal Privacy Laws: The Battle for Consumer Data Protection
Related: Marco Rubio Proposes New Federal Data Privacy Bill
Related: With No Unifying U.S. Federal Privacy Law, States Are Implementing Their Own
(Score: 4, Touché) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday May 26 2019, @04:00AM (4 children)
My state couldn't comply with your partisan VFC. We don't know who voted for whom. Our votes are sealed, our name recorded as voted, unsealed, the inside envelope put in with all the other totally anonymous yellow envelopes and then counted. Our vote here is SECRET. Only who voted is notated, nothing else.
As far as a do over, OK, but due to Cocaine Mitch determining he would make Obama a one-term president and obstructing everything, how bout we give him a six year do-over first? You know, just to be fair.
Don't worry '[UN]sTabLe gEniUs [IDIOT] you, your criminal family and your paid for IMMIGRANT trophy wife get to go home in 2020. She does look hot though!
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/donald-trump-melania-trump-knauss-first-lady-erections [gq-magazine.co.uk] (no actual fully nekkid pics, seems those are all behind paywalls)
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday May 26 2019, @09:51AM (3 children)
First of all. My Voter Fraud Panel wasn't Partisan. It was BIPARTISAN. With some very fine people from BOTH SIDES. Very distinguished people.
And second of all. We didn't ask who you voted for. Never ever asked that. Only your Name. Your Address. Birthday. Social Security #(last 4). Criminal Record( the Felonies). And, what elections did you vote in. Very simple request. Very easy to answer that one. But I'll tell you, the answers weren't great. Some told us "no." Some asked for money -- so incredible! And some gave us part of the Information. NOBODY gave us the full Voter Information. So we would have had to sue every single State. While so many investigations were going on against your, and my favorite President. I always sue. And I always win. But at that time it would have been a little too much.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday May 26 2019, @01:19PM (2 children)
God you're so much fun. You have it down so well....
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @08:44PM
For my part, I think the shadows are getting long and it is well past his time to dance gracefully off the stage. Just sayin'.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 26 2019, @08:54PM
No, it is drifting farther and farther from sounding like trump. Never liked the account myself, but esrly on it was much closer to Trump-like. Now it just throws in some obligatory sentences to try and maintain the facade but too many big words and coherent paragraphs. The occasional coherent sentence might be passablr.
It is almost like the worse thenpotus gets the more sane rdt gets. Probably compensating for the real failure.