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Franchise Industry Must Tackle Privacy

BY Kevin Adler
April 28, 2006

Consumers are growing more sensitive about the privacy of their financial information, and franchisors are no different than other businesses needing to become more attentive to protecting customer data. 'Information privacy and security is one of the most fast-paced and constantly changing areas of the law today,' stated Kirk Nahra, chair, Wiley Rein & Fielding's privacy practice, in a conference call on April 20, targeted specifically to the privacy challenges that franchises face.

Laws regulating privacy are not uniform at the moment, with the financial services and health care industries operating under specific rules written for them, but most other industries covered by broad fair practices rules in '5 of the Federal Trade Commission ('FTC') Act and state laws. As incidents of privacy breaches have become more common, the FTC and state lawmakers have taken stronger steps to combat the problem.

Earlier this year, the FTC created a new Division of Privacy and Identity Protection in the Bureau of Consumer Protection. 'It is not very common for FTC to create a new division, which says a lot about the priority it places in this area,' said David Koch, chair, Wiley Rein & Fielding's franchise practice. The new FTC division has 30 professionals, he said, in contrast with the single professional who is dedicated to franchise issues. 'The bottom line is that if you are worried about [running afoul of] the Franchise Rule or privacy laws, the latter is more likely.'

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