[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 243 (Wednesday, December 18, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69373-69375]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-27234]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

[File No. 192 3093]


Global Data Vault, LLC; Analysis To Aid Public Comment

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Proposed consent agreement; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The consent agreement in this matter settles alleged 
violations of federal law prohibiting unfair or deceptive acts or 
practices. The attached Analysis to Aid Public Comment describes both 
the allegations in the complaint and the terms of the consent order--
embodied in the consent agreement--that would settle these allegations.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before January 17, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file comments online or on paper, by 
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write: ``Global Data Vault, 
LLC; File No. 192 3093'' on your comment, and file your comment online 
at https://www.regulations.gov by following the instructions on the 
web-based form. If you prefer to file your comment on paper, mail your 
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of 
the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610 (Annex D), 
Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the following address: 
Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 
400 7th Street SW, 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 
20024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Megan Cox (202-326-2282), Bureau of 
Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20580.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Pursuant to Section 6(f) of the Federal 
Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 2.34, 16 CFR 2.34, 
notice is

[[Page 69374]]

hereby given that the above-captioned consent agreement containing a 
consent order to cease and desist, having been filed with and accepted, 
subject to final approval, by the Commission, has been placed on the 
public record for a period of 30 days. The following Analysis to Aid 
Public Comment describes the terms of the consent agreement and the 
allegations in the complaint. An electronic copy of the full text of 
the consent agreement package can be obtained from the FTC Home Page 
(for December 3, 2019), on the World Wide Web, at https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/commission-actions.
    You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to 
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before January 17, 
2020. Write ``Global Data Vault, LLC; File No. 192 3093'' on your 
comment. Your comment--including your name and your state--will be 
placed on the public record of this proceeding, including, to the 
extent practicable, on the https://www.regulations.gov website.
    Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit 
your comments online through the https://www.regulations.gov website.
    If you prefer to file your comment on paper, write ``Global Data 
Vault, LLC; File No. 192 3093'' on your comment and on the envelope, 
and mail your comment to the following address: Federal Trade 
Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 
CC-5610 (Annex D), Washington, DC 20580; or deliver your comment to the 
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 
Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW, 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex 
D), Washington, DC 20024. If possible, submit your paper comment to the 
Commission by courier or overnight service.
    Because your comment will be placed on the publicly accessible 
website at https://www.regulations.gov, you are solely responsible for 
making sure that your comment does not include any sensitive or 
confidential information. In particular, your comment should not 
include any sensitive personal information, such as your or anyone 
else's Social Security number; date of birth; driver's license number 
or other state identification number, or foreign country equivalent; 
passport number; financial account number; or credit or debit card 
number. You are also solely responsible for making sure that your 
comment does not include any sensitive health information, such as 
medical records or other individually identifiable health information. 
In addition, your comment should not include any ``trade secret or any 
commercial or financial information which . . . is privileged or 
confidential''--as provided by Section 6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 
46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2)--including in 
particular competitively sensitive information such as costs, sales 
statistics, inventories, formulas, patterns, devices, manufacturing 
processes, or customer names.
    Comments containing material for which confidential treatment is 
requested must be filed in paper form, must be clearly labeled 
``Confidential,'' and must comply with FTC Rule 4.9(c). In particular, 
the written request for confidential treatment that accompanies the 
comment must include the factual and legal basis for the request, and 
must identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from 
the public record. See FTC Rule 4.9(c). Your comment will be kept 
confidential only if the General Counsel grants your request in 
accordance with the law and the public interest. Once your comment has 
been posted on the public FTC website--as legally required by FTC Rule 
4.9(b)--we cannot redact or remove your comment from the FTC website, 
unless you submit a confidentiality request that meets the requirements 
for such treatment under FTC Rule 4.9(c), and the General Counsel 
grants that request.
    Visit the FTC website at http://www.ftc.gov to read this Notice and 
the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws that the 
Commission administers permit the collection of public comments to 
consider and use in this proceeding, as appropriate. The Commission 
will consider all timely and responsive public comments that it 
receives on or before January 17, 2020. For information on the 
Commission's privacy policy, including routine uses permitted by the 
Privacy Act, see https://www.ftc.gov/site-information/privacy-policy.

Analysis of Proposed Consent Order To Aid Public Comment

    The Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'') has accepted, subject 
to final approval, an agreement containing a consent order from Global 
Data Vault, LLC (``Global Data Vault'' or ``Respondent'').
    The proposed consent order (``proposed order'') has been placed on 
the public record for 30 days for receipt of comments by interested 
persons. Comments received during this period will become part of the 
public record. After 30 days, the Commission will again review the 
agreement and the comments received, and will decide whether it should 
withdraw from the agreement and take appropriate action or make final 
the agreement's proposed order.
    This matter concerns alleged false or misleading representations 
that Global Data Vault made concerning its participation in the Privacy 
Shield framework agreed upon by the U.S. and the European Union 
(``EU''). The Privacy Shield framework allows for the lawful transfer 
of personal data from the EU to participating companies in the U.S. The 
framework consists of a set of principles and related requirements that 
have been deemed by the European Commission as providing ``adequate'' 
privacy protection. The principles include notice; choice; 
accountability for onward transfer; security; data integrity and 
purpose limitation; access; and recourse, enforcement, and liability. 
The related requirements include, for example, securing an independent 
recourse mechanism to handle any disputes about how the company handles 
information about EU citizens.
    To participate in the framework, a company must comply with the 
Privacy Shield principles and self-certify that compliance to the U.S. 
Department of Commerce (``Commerce''). Commerce reviews companies' 
self-certification applications and maintains a public website, https://www.privacyshield.gov/list, where it posts the names of companies who 
have completed the requirements for certification. Companies are 
required to recertify every year in order to continue benefitting from 
Privacy Shield.
    Global Data Vault provides data storage and recovery services. 
According to the Commission's complaint, Global Data Vault published on 
its website, https://www.globaldatavault.com/privacypolicy/, a privacy 
policy containing statements related to its participation in Privacy 
Shield. However, Global Data Vault allowed its certification to lapse 
and continued to claim it participated in the Privacy Shield framework.
    The Commission's proposed three-count complaint alleges that 
Respondent violated Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act. 
Specifically, the proposed complaint alleges that Respondent engaged in 
a deceptive act or practice by falsely representing that it was a 
certified participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. The 
proposed complaint further alleges that Respondent engaged in deceptive 
acts or practices by representing that it

[[Page 69375]]

complied with the framework when in fact it had failed to comply with 
certain Privacy Shield requirements.
    Part I of the proposed order prohibits the company from making 
misrepresentations about its membership in any privacy or security 
program sponsored by the government or any other self-regulatory or 
standard-setting organization, including, but not limited to, the EU-
U.S. Privacy Shield framework, the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield framework, 
and the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules.
    Part II of the proposed order requires that the company affirm to 
Commerce that it will either continue to apply the Privacy Shield 
framework principles to any data it received pursuant to frameworks or 
will delete or return such data.
    Parts III through VI of the proposed order are reporting and 
compliance provisions. Part III requires acknowledgement of the order 
and dissemination of the order now and in the future to persons with 
responsibilities relating to the subject matter of the order. Part IV 
ensures notification to the FTC of changes in corporate status and 
mandates that the company submit an initial compliance report to the 
FTC. Part V requires the company to create certain documents relating 
to its compliance with the order for 10 years and to retain those 
documents for a five-year period. Part VI mandates that the company 
make available to the FTC information or subsequent compliance reports, 
as requested.
    Part VII is a provision ``sun-setting'' the order after 20 years, 
with certain exceptions.
    The purpose of this analysis is to aid public comment on the 
proposed order. It is not intended to constitute an official 
interpretation of the complaint or proposed order, or to modify in any 
way the proposed order's terms.

    By direction of the Commission.
April J. Tabor,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2019-27234 Filed 12-17-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6750-01-P