The exponential growth in recent years of information technology has required businesses worldwide to not only become increasingly mindful of privacy and data protection issues, but also to become proactive about the manner in which consumer and business information is collected, retained, organized, and disclosed.

In the United States, government regulators and private litigants have placed a spotlight on information security and privacy issues through increased oversight, enforcement actions, and litigation. In addition, a growing number of U.S. federal and state laws have been enacted or strengthened in connection with privacy protection, including CAN-SPAM, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Act, state privacy and data breach notification laws, and pending federal and state legislation on a variety of topics.

In the European Union, the implementation by individual EU Member States of the European Union Data Protection Directive has resulted in Europe becoming one of the most highly regulated jurisdictions in the world when it comes to data protection requirements. Moreover, recent additional EU directives relating to electronic communications have further complicated EU-based marketing and data distribution programs. Other countries, including Canada and Japan, also have enacted their own privacy legislation, and this trend is expected to continue in other international jurisdictions.

As a fully integrated international law firm with offices located throughout the Americas, Europe, and the Far East, including China, Hogan & Hartson’s privacy lawyers are able to produce seamless client solutions to these issues with a maximum degree of flexibility across the globe. As such, we have been recognized as a top privacy firm in the 2007 and 2008 editions of Chambers USA, which praised the practice for its “great insight” and its ability to provide “fast and excellent analyses of situations,” and in the 2007 and 2008 editions of The Legal 500 US, which commended our “impressive specialist focus on the privacy area.”

We provide various forms of privacy advice and counseling across a range of subject matters and industries, and we have extensive experience organizing, managing, and coordinating compliance projects and responses to investigations with both national and international dimensions, allowing clients to efficiently manage their multi-jurisdictional legal needs.

Hogan & Hartson draws upon the broad experience of our technology; health; communications; and antitrust, competition, and consumer protection lawyers to assist companies and industry groups with the formulation and implementation of policies and best practices and to address privacy issues pertaining to data collection and processing.

We also conduct privacy and security audits on behalf of clients and their use of personal information, and counsel our clients in the drafting and implementation of privacy policies and terms of use, including advice on how to notify consumers when those terms change, how to manage employee data, and how to handle cross-border data transfers. We work with a wide range of companies on marketing initiatives, including advising on compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act, federal and state telemarketing laws, and the EU electronic commerce directive impacting commercial e-mails and text messages. We also monitor events, decisions, and enforcement actions in a wide variety of privacy and security issues and publish a bimonthly analysis for interested clients. We regularly represent clients before privacy and data protection authorities in both the United States and in Europe.

Hogan & Hartson has particular experience in assisting with the creation of best practices in several online industries, including the Online Privacy Alliance, the Network Advertising Initiative, Liberty Alliance, and the Health Internet Ethics coalitions. Furthermore, our broad-based experience dealing with privacy and data security issues both domestically and internationally provides us with the skills and knowledge necessary to meet, and exceed, our clients’ expectations for the compliance challenges they continually face.