Bart Huffman, CIPP/US, has joined the Austin, Texas, office of Locke Lord as an intellectual property partner with an emphasis on privacy and Internet technology matters. With a background in systems engineering, Huffman has spent a significant amount of time most recently on cases involving Internet Service Providers and IP addresses, topics he says will continue to be fleshed out in the courts in the near future.
In predicting what to expect legislatively for 2012, Huffman told The Privacy Advisor that it’s not likely we’ll see data breach legislation, but privacy legislation of some sort. The forthcoming HIPAA/HITECH final rules and the final FTC privacy report are highly anticipated, he said.
“In the mobile space, I think the mechanisms for implementation of privacy notice and choice or other models will continue to evolve, especially in terms of which topics and circumstances warrant heightened consent,” Huffman predicts. In addition, more and more companies are moving to electronic documentation and need appropriate but useable controls around that, even for general commercial transactions.
“I think companies are starting to realize the significance of more responsible handling of information by third party vendors and service providers in connection with operations and the need for procurement procedures and contracts to be updated to take into account appropriate security controls, and along with that, a need for generally applicable information security standards.”
