ASSIGNMENT 4 – PRIVACY LAW Bob is the CEO for “Freedom Enterprises,” a financial services conglomerate with over 10 billion in assets. Among Freedom’s primary businesses are banking, health insurance and property and casualty insurance. Bob comes to your office seeking counsel relative to certain events that have transpired over the past few months at Freedom. Freedom recently fired an employee over an email that was intercepted by Freedom’s Information Security Team. Freedom has a written policy that states that it does not monitor employee email or internet usage. Although all employees are provided with a company email address, the email in question was sent through the employee’s personal Yahoo account to an unidentified third party. The employee accessed his personal email through a company issued laptop via the company’s internet service provider . The email stated the following: To: “Mr. X” [email protected] From: “Sam Smith” [email protected] Subject: Information Hey X, nice meeting with you yesterday. To follow up on our conversation, I have managed to find the information you were requesting: 1. I attached a file listing all policyholders living in Hypoville. The document lists all policyholders by first initial and last name, address, policy number and phone number. 2. I attached a second file, which lists 20,000 Social Security Numbers. As we discussed, we will split the money after you sell them. What did he agree to? $1 per SSN? I can also confirm that on 5/1/2012, Freedom disclosed the attached 20,000 SSNs to “System F Industries.” Our regulators are sniffing around this a bit but I wouldn’t worry about it because our Board of Directors ran it though our outside counsel before signing off on it. 3. Stop worrying! Our Human Resources and Information Security Team is a pretty incompetent group. There is no way they read any emails that employees send. They don’t check to see if we wear our badges. They don’t even have a written information security policy! I have done deals like this many times so don’t be worried, I have everything under control. In fact, many of our employees have a little “side business” going on with all the data we keep. It is obviously very profitable. We need it with the lousy salaries we get here anyway. 4. I was told by Freedom’s Senior Vice President to hack into the IRS’s database and uncover their algorithm for determining which businesses to audit. I just cracked it yesterday and I am sending it to you first. I am sure this will be very valuable on the market. As discussed, we will split the profits once it is sold. Sam Smith Senior Regulatory Analyst Freedom Enterprises Bob is obviously concerned with what liability or sanctions may be imposed on Freedom. Your supervising attorney asks you to prepare a memo discussing all potential privacy-related issues in Freedom’s case. Please advise your supervising attorney on the likely outcome of each issue, and cite appropriate ...

1. ASSIGNMENT 4 – PRIVACY LAW
Bob is the CEO for “Freedom Enterprises,” a financial services
conglomerate with over 10 billion in assets. Among Freedom’s
primary businesses are banking, health insurance and property
and casualty insurance. Bob comes to your office seeking
counsel relative to certain events that have transpired over the
past few months at Freedom.
Freedom recently fired an employee over an email that was
intercepted by Freedom’s Information Security Team. Freedom
has a written policy that states that it does not monitor
employee email or internet usage. Although all employees are
provided with a company email address, the email in question
was sent through the employee’s personal Yahoo account to an
unidentified third party. The employee accessed his personal
email through a company issued laptop via the company’s
internet service provider .
The email stated the following:
To: “Mr. X”
[email protected]
From: “Sam Smith”
[email protected]
Subject: Information

2. Hey X, nice meeting with you yesterday. To follow up on our
conversation, I have managed to find the information you were
requesting:
1. I attached a file listing all policyholders living in
Hypoville. The document lists all policyholders by first initial
and last name, address, policy number and phone number.
2. I attached a second file, which lists 20,000 Social Security
Numbers. As we discussed, we will split the money after you
sell them. What did he agree to? $1 per SSN? I can also confirm
that on 5/1/2012, Freedom disclosed the attached 20,000 SSNs
to “System F Industries.” Our regulators are sniffing around this
a bit but I wouldn’t worry about it because our Board of
Directors ran it though our outside counsel before signing off
on it.
3. Stop worrying! Our Human Resources and Information
Security Team is a pretty incompetent group. There is no way
they read any emails that employees send. They don’t check to
see if we wear our badges. They don’t even have a written
information security policy! I have done deals like this many
times so don’t be worried, I have everything under control. In
fact, many of our employees have a little “side business” going
on with all the data we keep. It is obviously very profitable. We
need it with the lousy salaries we get here anyway.
4. I was told by Freedom’s Senior Vice President to hack into
the IRS’s database and uncover their algorithm for determining
which businesses to audit. I just cracked it yesterday and I am

3. sending it to you first. I am sure this will be very valuable on
the market. As discussed, we will split the profits once it is
sold.
Sam Smith
Senior Regulatory Analyst
Freedom Enterprises
Bob is obviously concerned with what liability or sanctions may
be imposed on Freedom. Your supervising attorney asks you to
prepare a memo discussing all potential privacy-related issues
in Freedom’s case. Please advise your supervising attorney on
the likely outcome of each issue, and cite appropriate
authorities.