Has Door Swung Open to Challenges to FTC Data Security Power?

U.S. companies that face FTC data security enforcement actions may be on firmer ground when challenging orders that lack specifics on how to overhaul their security programs, privacy attorneys told Bloomberg Law.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit June 6 tossed an FTC enforcement order against LabMD Inc. because it required the now defunct medical laboratory to “meet an indeterminable standard of reasonableness,” the court wrote.

“The ruling does raise potentially far-reaching questions about the agency’s authority to bring future data enforcement actions based on practices it deems unreasonable without pointing to specific data security flaws as ...