Author: Poblete Tamargo LLP

By Arthur Freyre, Esq.

The Florida Information Protection Act (FIPA) became law this past summer. FIPA requires that all entities need to take reasonable measures to protect personal information. For more information regarding FIPA, please my prior FIPA post. It will give you general overview of the law.

When defining reasonable measure, FIPA did not give a definition. This is such a new area of the law and, as such, it is to be expected; however, there is guidance available from various sources. For example, the International Association of Privacy Professional released a study of Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) enforcement actions regarding data privacy.

The FTC is one of the federal agencies that currently has administrative jurisdiction regarding whether or not corporations had adequately protected consumer’s data privacy. This study provides you with a general idea of what reasonable care looks like. Reasonable care can be summed up in one word: proactive. How proactive is your company protecting data? Being proactive is not a one-time event for data privacy.

Being proactive requires you not only to assess, devise, and implement a data privacy plan, but it also requires you to assess whether or not your data privacy policy is sufficient in the changing world of technology. Being proactive also includes training and educating your staff with the data privacy protocols and the necessary changes in those protocols. 

Failures in being proactive may cost your company not only fines at an administrative level, but it will also damage your reputation in the marketplace.

Although FIPA does not define reasonable measures, looking at what the FTC requires through their enforcement actions does provide us with an idea of what reasonable measures looks like. And while there is no cookie-cutter approach – every business is different, even within the same fields – you can begin to consider what may or may not work for you by reviewing these recent enforcement actions. 

Working in conjunction with data privacy professionals at ProPrivatus, your data privacy and legal compliance team offers the following services:

1. Privacy gap and risk analysis
2. A privacy strategic and business plan
3. Privacy advice and training
4. Designing privacy policies and procedures
5. Breach Management.

(Coral Gables, Florida) Dr. Andy Gomez, Senior Advisor with Poblete Tamargo, was interviewed this week by National Public Radio (NPR) as part of a story that discusses how U.S.-Cuba policy makes its way into South Florida political campaigns. 

“Sure we care about Cuba,” Gomez told NPR. “But Cuba is no longer a top priority” in these elections. “Gomez in fact worries that episodes like this encourage the stereotype that Cuban-Americans are emotionally obsessed with Cuba to the exclusion of other issues like the economy.

“It reflects, he says, “taking a step back in terms of the maturity that the Cuban-American community has shown in terms of politics. Every once in a while we fall back into the politics of passion, and this is what we were seeing between Curbelo and Garcia” Congressional campaign. 

You can listen to the entire interview here.

(Miami, Florida) Dr. Andy Gomez, a senior advisor with Poblete Tamargo in Miami, was recently interviewed about his latest book, Social Challenges Facing Cuba.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, there has been a rapid transition from communist regimes to more democratic forms of governments around the world. In most of these situations, the changes and pre-transition analyses have focused on the areas of political and economic transformation while paying very little attention to the impact such dramatic changes have on the people.

Gomez analyzes some of the human factors that arise during a transition as it applies to Cuba. The study will be an invaluable tool to U.S. policymakers as they consider the various issues that need to be factored in during Cuba’s eventual break from totalitarian rule to a free system of government. 

Gomez sat down with Eliott Rodriguez, an Emmy Award winning journalist and respected South Florida news anchor, to discuss the book.

You can view the interview at the CBS4 website.