SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:
Declan has just started a job as a nursing assistant in a radiology department at Woodland Hospital. He has also started a program to become a registered nurse.
Before taking this career path, Declan was vaguely familiar with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). He now knows that he must help ensure the security of his patients’ Protected Health Information (PHI). Therefore, he is thinking carefully about privacy issues.
On the morning of his first day, Declan noticed that the newly hired receptionist handed each patient a HIPAA privacy notice. He wondered if it was necessary to give these privacy notices to returning patients, and if the radiology department could reduce paper waste through a system of one-time distribution.
He was also curious about the hospital’s use of a billing company. He Questioned whether the hospital was doing all it could to protect the privacy of its patients if the billing company had details about patients’ care.
On his first day Declan became familiar with all areas of the hospital’s large radiology department. As he was organizing equipment left in the halfway, he overheard a conversation between two hospital administrators. He was surprised to hear that a portablehard drive containing non-encrypted patient information was missing. The administrators expressed relief that the hospital would be able to avoid liability. Declan was surprised, and wondered whether the hospital had plans to properly report what had happened.
Despite Declan’s concern about this issue, he was amazed by the hospital’s effort to integrate Electronic Health Records (EHRs) into the everyday care of patients. He thought about the potential for streamlining care even more if they were accessible to all medical facilities nationwide.
Declan had many positive interactions with patients. At the end of his first day, he spoke to one patient, John, whose father had just been diagnosed with a degenerative muscular disease. John was about to get blood work done, and he feared that the blood work could reveal a genetic predisposition to the disease that could affect his ability to obtain insurance coverage. Declan told John that he did not think that was possible, but the patient was wheeled away before he could explain why. John plans to ask a colleague about this.
In one month, Declan has a paper due for one his classes on a health topic of his choice. By then, he will have had many interactions with patients he can use as examples. He will be pleased to give credit to John by name for inspiring him to think more carefully about genetic testing.
Although Declan’s day ended with many Questions, he was pleased about his new position.
Based on the scenario, what is the most likely way Declan’s supervisor would answer his question about the hospital’s use of a billing company?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:
A US-based startup company is selling a new gaming application. One day, the CEO of the company receives an urgent letter from a prominent EU-based retail partner. Triggered by an unresolved complaint lodged by an EU resident, the letter describes an ongoing investigation by a supervisory authority into the retailer’s data handling practices.
The complainant accuses the retailer of improperly disclosing her personal data, without consent, to parties in the United States. Further, the complainant accuses the EU-based retailer of failing to respond to her withdrawal of consent and request for erasure of her personal data. Your organization, the US-based startup company, was never informed of this request for erasure by the EU-based retail partner. The supervisory authority investigating the complaint has threatened the suspension of data flows if the parties involved do not cooperate with the investigation. The letter closes with an urgent request: “Please act immediately by identifying all personal data received from our company.”
This is an important partnership. Company executives know that its biggest fans come from Western Europe; and this retailer is primarily responsible for the startup’s rapid market penetration.
As the Company’s data privacy leader, you are sensitive to the criticality of the relationship with the retailer.
At this stage of the investigation, what should the data privacy leader review first?
Which act violates the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA)?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:
Matt went into his son’s bedroom one evening and found him stretched out on his bed typing on his laptop. “Doing your network?” Matt asked hopefully.
“No,” the boy said. “I’m filling out a survey.”
Matt looked over his son’s shoulder at his computer screen. “What kind of survey?” “It’s asking Questions about my opinions.”
“Let me see,” Matt said, and began reading the list of Questions that his son had already answered. “It’s asking your opinions about the government and citizenship. That’s a little odd. You’re only ten.”
Matt wondered how the web link to the survey had ended up in his son’s email inbox. Thinking the message might have been sent to his son by mistake he opened it and read it. It had come from an entity called the Leadership Project, and the content and the graphics indicated that it was intended for children. As Matt read further he learned that kids who took the survey were automatically registered in a contest to win the first book in a series about famous leaders.
To Matt, this clearly seemed like a marketing ploy to solicit goods and services to children. He asked his son if he had been prompted to give information about himself in order to take the survey. His son told him he had been asked to give his name, address, telephone number, and date of birth, and to answer Questions about his favorite games and toys.
Matt was concerned. He doubted if it was legal for the marketer to collect information from his son in the way that it was. Then he noticed several other commercial emails from marketers advertising products for children in his son’s inbox, and he decided it was time to report the incident to the proper authorities.
Based on the incident, the FTC’s enforcement actions against the marketer would most likely include what violation?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION:
A US-based startup company is selling a new gaming application. One day, the CEO of the company receives an urgent letter from a prominent EU-based retail partner. Triggered by an unresolved complaint lodged by an EU resident, the letter describes an ongoing investigation by a supervisory authority into the retailer’s data handling practices.
The complainant accuses the retailer of improperly disclosing her personal data, without consent, to parties in the United States. Further, the complainant accuses the EU-based retailer of failing to respond to her withdrawal of consent and request for erasure of her personal data. Your organization, the US-based startup company, was never informed of this request for erasure by the EU-based retail partner. The supervisory authority investigating the complaint has threatened the suspension of data flows if the parties involved do not cooperate with the investigation. The letter closes with an urgent request: “Please act immediately by identifying all personal data received from our company.”
This is an important partnership. Company executives know that its biggest fans come from Western Europe; and this retailer is primarily responsible for the startup’s rapid market penetration.
As the Company’s data privacy leader, you are sensitive to the criticality of the relationship with the retailer.
Under the GDPR, the complainant’s request regarding her personal information is known as what?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION
Otto is preparing a report to his Board of Directors at Filtration Station, where he is responsible for the privacy program. Filtration Station is a U.S. company that sells filters and tubing products to pharmaceutical companies for research use. The company is based in Seattle, Washington, with offices throughout the U.S. and Asia. It sells to business customers across both the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region. Filtration Station participates in the Cross-Border Privacy Rules system of the APEC Privacy Framework.
Unfortunately, Filtration Station suffered a data breach in the previous quarter. An unknown third party was able to gain access to Filtration Station’s network and was able to steal data relating to employees in the company’s Human Resources database, which is hosted by a third-party cloud provider based in the U.S. The HR data is encrypted. Filtration Station also uses the third-party cloud provider to host its business marketing contact database. The marketing database was not affected by the data breach. It appears that the data breach was caused when a system administrator at the cloud provider stored the encryption keys with the data itself.
The Board has asked Otto to provide information about the data breach and how updates on new developments in privacy laws and regulations apply to Filtration Station. They are particularly concerned about staying up to date on the various U.S. state laws and regulations that have been in the news, especially the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and breach notification requirements.
What can Otto do to most effectively minimize the privacy risks involved in using a cloud provider for the HR data?
SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next QUESTION
When there was a data breach involving customer personal and financial information at a large retail store, the company’s directors were shocked. However, Roberta, a privacy analyst at the company and a victim of identity theft herself, was not. Prior to the breach, she had been working on a privacy program report for the executives. How the company shared and handled data across its organization was a major concern. There were neither adequate rules about access to customer information nor
procedures for purging and destroying outdated data. In her research, Roberta had discovered that even low- level employees had access to all of the company’s customer data,including financial records, and that the company still had in its possession obsolete customer data going back to the 1980s.
Her report recommended three main reforms. First, permit access on an as-needs-to-know basis. This would mean restricting employees’ access to customer information to data that was relevant to the work performed. Second, create a highly secure database for storing customers’ financial information (e.g., credit card and bank account numbers) separate from less sensitive information. Third, identify outdated customer information and then develop a process for securely disposing of it.
When the breach occurred, the company’s executives called Roberta to a meeting where she presented the recommendations in her report. She explained that the company having a national customer base meant it would have to ensure that it complied with all relevant state breach notification laws. Thanks to Roberta’s guidance, the company was able to notify customers quickly and within the specific timeframes set by state breach notification laws.
Soon after, the executives approved the changes to the privacy program that Roberta recommended in her report. The privacy program is far more effective now because of these changes and, also, because privacy and security are now considered the responsibility of every employee.
Based on the problems with the company’s privacy security that Roberta identifies, what is the most likely cause of the breach?
Even when dealing with an organization subject to the CCPA, California residents are NOT legally entitled to request that the organization do what?
According to the FTC Report of 2012, what is the main goal of Privacy by Design?
What privacy concept grants a consumer the right to view and correct errors on his or her credit report?
TESTED 04 Jun 2025
