Consumer Privacy Regulation, Enforcement, and Litigation in the United States

This article summarizes major court decisions, consent decrees, and other resolutions of regulatory enforcement actions and private litigation related to consumer privacy. On April 15, 2002, the New York Appellate Division, Second Department, affirmed in Smith v. Chase Manhattan Bank the dismissal of a purported class action suit alleging that Chase Manhattan Bank violated its own customer privacy and confidentiality policies by selling personally identifiable information about its customers. In September 2002, the American Bar Association (ABA) filed a complaint in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against the FTC regarding the applicability of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB Act) and its implementing regulations to lawyers. The ABA claimed in the complaint that lawyers are, and should remain, governed by state laws on attorney-client confidentiality and privacy. In September 2002, the Massachusetts Attorney General announced an agreement between a coalition of attorneys general from several states and Amazon.com regarding representations made in Amazon's privacy policy.