Author: Poblete Tamargo LLP

(Coral Gables, Florida) Poblete Tamargo Senior Policy Advisor, Dr. Andy Gomez, was recently interviewed by El Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to Cuba:

“Putin believes that U.S. foreign policy is now at probably its weakest point in 10 to 15 years,” Gomez said. “He has realized that he can get away with anything, that he can tell the Americans ‘We’re back in the region, and what are you going to do about it?’”

You can read the entire El Nuevo Herald story here and the Miami Herald piece here. 

On Monday, July 22, 2014, Poblete Tamargo’s Jason Poblete was interviewed on CNBC’s Squawk Box about recent events in Russia and the U.S. response. The video clip is embedded below:

Poblete Tamargo Senior Policy Dr. Advisor Andy Gomez, based in Miami, Florida, was recently interviewed about Russian plans to help Cuba re-open a signals facility in Lourdes, Cuba.

“If the report is true, there’s no question Washington will put Cuba engagement on the back burner,” said Andy Gomez, a retired Cuba specialist at the University of Miami and now senior policy adviser for the Washington law firm Poblete Tamargo.

You can read the entire story at the Sacramento Bee.

By Arthur Freyre

Governor Scott recently signed into law the Florida Information Protection Act of 2014 (FIPA). FIPA is effective starting July 1, 2014. The following is a brief overview of FIPA as well as its key sections.  

FIPA updates existing data privacy laws for the State of Florida. It requires all entities subject to the law to “take reasonable measures to protect and secure data in electronic form containing personal information.” The following three questions are discussed in this blog post: (1) What is an entity?; (2) What is personal information?; and (3) What are reasonable measures? We will also briefly discuss the consequences of failing to comply with the new law.

What Is An Entity?

Under FIPA, an entity includes any and all organizations, including businesses, trusts, estate, associations, cooperative that acquire and maintain, store, or use personal information. In other words, if you are organization that uses personal information, you are required to use reasonable care to protect that information.

An entity is basically any organization that does business in the State of Florida. FIPA also applies to government entities, and third party contractors, who are contracted to maintain, store, or process personal information on an entity’s behalf.

What is Personal Information?

There are two groups of personal information. The first classification of personal information includes items that include a person’s first name, or first initial, and last name, with combination of the following information:

• Social Security Number, Driver’s license, Personal id card, passport number, military identification number or any other number that can uniquely identify you;
• Credit Card number, debit card number, or financial account number along with a password, access code, or security code that can give anyone access to one personal financial information;
• Medical records, including past medical history; and
• Health insurance policy number or identification number.

The second classification of personal information includes all email addresses, in combination with a password or security question, that grant access to an online account. Information deemed a “public record,” (i.e. information found in courthouses, or property records) are not deemed as personal information. Also, information that is encrypted, secured, or modified that removes elements of personal information is exempted from this definition.

What is Reasonable Care and What Are the Reporting Requirements? 

FIPA does not define reasonable care; rather reasonable care will be open to a case-by-case analysis. The law is triggered when a data breach impacts a minimum of 500 Floridians has occurred or is suspected to have occurred.

The breach must be notified not only to the police, or the relevant federal agency (if applicable), but also to the Florida Attorney General’s Department of Legal Affairs. Notification must occur within thirty (30) days. If the data breach occurs as a result of a third party contractor, the organization has ten (10) days to notify the Department of Legal Affairs.

If the data breach affects 1,000 Floridians or more, FIPA requires that the organization report the breach to all consumer-reporting agencies, as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, without reasonable delay.

Penalties for Non-Compliance & Other Matters

Failure to obtain reasonable measures as well failures to notify will result in fines of up to $500,000 and remedies included under Florida’s unfair or deceptive trade practice as set forth in Florida Statute § 501.207.

Finally, there is no private cause of action allowed under FIPA. In other words, no individual lawsuits against companies and other entities will be allowed under state court pursuant to FIPA. 

Since reasonable measures are not specified, it is imperative to contact your attorney to discuss how we can assist you in protecting data.

Our data privacy compliance attorneys and specialists can assist your company in becoming compliant under the law. We offer the following services:

• Privacy gap and risk analysis
• A privacy strategic and business plan
• Privacy advice and training
• Designing privacy policies and procedures
• Breach Management.

Lourdes C. Acevedo

Through its close proximity to Latin America and the Caribbean, South Florida has evolved into one of Latin America’s top cities for investments and business dealings by offering companies international connections, a highly diverse community, and a large concentration of foreign-born workers. With immigrants at the forefront of entrepreneurial businesses, it is no surprise that South Florida has been nationally and internationally recognized as leading the way into the next revolutionary technological wave.

Just this last month, Miami hosted eMerge Americas, a five-day summit that focused not only on presenting the newest companies and most state-of-the-art trends in technology, but also, on forging relationships between Latin America’s top business executives and technological visionaries and global industry leaders.

Fueling South Florida’s technological growth and development, the international software company Microsoft, announced earlier this year that it chose South Florida as a flagship city for one of its first trademarked innovation centers. The Microsoft centers program will serve as an innovative environment to improve technological training and understanding in local communities. 

Accompanying the recent rise in technological advances is the new, heightened concern over the collection of customer personal data by businesses throughout a wide array of industries, including, travel, finance, education, entertainment, healthcare, media, service and commercial. 

South Florida businesses face three challenges.  The first challenge they face is compliance with both U.S. federal and state laws.  The second challenge is compliance with the individual Latin American countries’ data privacy laws.  The third and final challenge is the market forces that are requiring companies to address data privacy when the aforementioned regulations are not enough.   

To meet these challenges, companies need to recognize and protect against privacy gaps, thoroughly assessing a company’s risk analysis and appropriate breach management, and adopting policies that ensure compliance with ongoing and fast-changing government regulations, companies would build defenses against legal and business-related consequences. The purpose of these safeguards is to protect consumers against a data breach, but also to contain a data breach when it happens. 

Failure to appropriately input safeguards may not only result in legal liability and regulatory sanctions, but potential ramifications also lie in damage to one’s business reputation, customer distrust, and reduced revenue, as seen by recent resignation of Target’s CEO as a result of the major data breach earlier this year, among others.

Please contact us should you have any questions or inquiries regarding data privacy policy, U.S. immigration laws, or related business advisory services. Our bilingual attorneys and professional consultants understand these issues and also have a unique perspective of the South Florida marketplace.