Showing posts with label law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label law. Show all posts

Thursday, January 2, 2020

California Online Privacy Law 2020 - Explained




California Privacy Law 2020: VirtualU Special Report on how to get help on CCPA and how-to remove my personal or business data! https://virtualu.net/california-privacy-law-2020/

California Privacy Law 2020: Act Bill Full Text – AB-375 goes into effect January 1st 2020, purchase the VirtualU Personal & Family Data Privacy Do-It-Yourself Kit. The kit includes help by a VirtualU Guru to remove your personal data from the top 100+ public records sites and how to get removed from any website. With our standardized take-down requests, you can properly ask each site to correct or remove any content from their website or from Google any of your personal data and control your “Virtual You”!
“Consumers can also request companies bound by the CCPA delete all their personal data. And as The Wall Street Journal reported, websites with third-party tracking are supposed to add a “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” button that if clicked, prohibits the site from sending data about the customer to any third parties, including advertisers.”
Dec 31, 2019: No one is ready for California’s new consumer privacy law The California Consumer Privacy Act goes into effect January 1st, and it doesn’t look like anyone, even the state of California itself, is totally ready. Draft regulations for enforcing the law are still being finalized at the state level, and questions about specific aspects of the most sweeping privacy regulation since the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are still not clear. “If you thought the GDPR was bumpy, the CCPA is going to be a real roller coaster,” Reece Hirsch tells The Verge. Hirsch is co-head of Morgan Lewis’ privacy and cybersecurity practice and has been advising clients on how to adapt to the new law. “This is a complex set of new rules, which are still a work in progress.”
The crux of the CCPA is this: if your company buys or sells data on at least 50,000 California residents each year, you have to disclose to those residents what you’re doing with the data, and, they can request you not sell it. Consumers can also request companies bound by the CCPA delete all their personal data. And as The Wall Street Journal reported, websites with third-party tracking are supposed to add a “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” button that if clicked, prohibits the site from sending data about the customer to any third parties, including advertisers. “If you thought the GDPR was bumpy, the CCPA is going to be a real roller coaster.” Despite the handwringing ahead of its deadline last year, the official adoption of GDPR went as smoothly as could be expected. Facebook and Google are already facing billion-dollar lawsuits over alleged violations of the GDPR, but it will be years before those suits are closed. Until that time, small companies will have only a muddled sense of how they might be vulnerable to the rule, and compliance continues to be something of a puzzle. But the CCPA is likely to be an even greater compliance challenge. It’s the first sweeping legislation in the US to give consumers control over how their personal information is used online, and may signal how other states will seek to protect their residents’ privacy, Hirsch says. He’s advising clients not only update their privacy policies, but to also create processes for retaining copies of any personal information collected about consumers. Hirsch is also advising companies determine who will respond to and handle consumers’ requests for information and the deletion of that information.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said earlier this month that even though widespread enforcement of the CCPA isn’t likely until July, companies should not view the first six months of the year as a grace period. “We’re going to try to help folks understand our interpretation of the law,” Becerra said last week, as quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle. “And once we’ve done those things, our job is to make sure there’s compliance, so we’ll enforce.” James Steyer, CEO of children’s privacy advocacy organization Common Sense, says he thinks most companies are making good-faith efforts to get in compliance with the CCPA. Microsoft announced last month that it plans to implement the provisions of the CCPA not just in California, but for all its customers, too. Facebook looks to be taking a different approach toward CCPA, emphasizing that “we do not sell people’s data,” according to a December blog post. Facebook says already has tools to allow users to access and delete their information, wherever they live. The service has a CCPA page where California residents can request information about any of its products — WhatsApp, Instagram, Portal, Messenger Kids, and Facebook itself. As a result, Facebook sees itself as largely already complying with CCPA. Steyer takes issue with Facebook’s stance, since, as he says, the company’s business model is based on collecting and monetizing its users’ data. California should be keeping tabs on how companies collect and use their customers’ data, not just whether they sell that data, he adds. “As has unfortunately become the custom, Facebook is the single biggest outlier,” Steyer says. “Becerra is going to have to focus on holding companies like Facebook to account.” Facebook declined to comment further. Hirsch says it’s not entirely clear what California is using as its definition of a “sale” of consumer information.
Another issue: How is a company going to ensure it is deleting the right customer’s data without collecting more information to verify them? “The broad definition of ‘sale’ is a pain point for a lot of companies because it potentially includes sharing information for online advertising,” Hirsch says. Service provider agreements are another area where companies will have to take a close look at their practices; an agreement with a subcontractor or vendor should carefully spell out how any personal information is used or shared, Hirsch added. Most large tech companies, Steyer says, view the CCPA as being in their long-term interests because it will create more trust among consumers. But with its slew of privacy gaffes over the past few years, it’s puzzling why Facebook wouldn’t seize an opportunity to improve its privacy track record. “This is a landmark moment, it’s the first major comprehensive privacy legislation passed in the U.S. since Zuckerberg was in kindergarten,” Steyer says. “But Facebook is trying to find ways to get around the law.”
$7,500 FINE Per Violation … How CCPA Can RUIN YOU
California Legislature Act Bill Full Text – AB-375:
California Privacy Act 2020 on Wikipedia:
California Consumer Privacy Act: Official Website
For Doctors: Beverly Hills Bar Association
California Privacy Law 2020 – Beverly Hills Bar Association Opinion for Doctors
More in the News:
January 1st 2020 New Year: Why 2020 Will Be The Year Of Digital Human Rights.
Dec 29th 2019 VirtualU.net Privacy-Shield follows Recommended & Compliant GDPR rules for Calofornia as an example for the U.S.
story tags: california, privacy, law, 2020, text, vs gdpr, summary, amendments, rule, policy, guidelines, remove, personal, business, data, public records, terms, conditions, privacy policy, act, AB-375, how to, removals, Yelp, news, company, online, reputation, management, social media, monitoring, search engine optimization, do it yourself, software, DIY, law, legal, lawyer, in my area, near me

Friday, September 13, 2019

DoctorU Special Report: How-To respond Guide on the Doctor-Patient Reviews Dichotomy & HIPPA Patient Privacy Laws

September 13th 2019 Press Release - How-to respond guide on the Doctor Patient Reviews Dichotomy & HIPPA Patient Privacy Laws - Problems & Solutions! – By https://VirtualU.net/about-us/


Do-Not Respond to Patient Reviews Online:

How should Physicians respond to online patient reviews or comments? The only right answer: "You don't!"-- If you do, you can quickly, easily and inadvertently reveal patient information when responding online without first consulting HIPPA patient privacy guidelines, your lawyer and your reputation management company. In most cases, your response cannot be removed once posted. This professional advice from VirtualU comes from the inventor of reputation management and 30 years experience handling 1000's of successful online reputation actions. If you consider leaving a properly compliant response on the Internet, please contact us first.

What would be the purpose of your response? How would you know the response of the reviewer, Yelp or a Judge? This would be similar to showing a customer around your office and the customer wanting to or being forced to see your dirty laundry. In the search results, the negatives would be above the fold, and visible in Google without even clicking on anything. A hundred percent of online customers would see the dirty laundry; unless they are blind. Nothing looks worse than a doctor arguing with a patient online. Furthermore, as soon as you respond to a comment, the website will likely consider the customer review valid; just because you replied to it. And, limit your options of the review to be taken down later.

The Dichotomy of Doctor Reviews Sites & HIPPA Patient Privacy laws:

Because of the inherent dichotomy in the Terms and Conditions of most websites and the HIPPA "guidelines". Most reviews sites require a reviewer to be an existing customer; yet the Doctor is not allowed to confirm that it's a real customer. 84% of consumers turn to review sites to find a doctor. Fewer than one in five have a process for dealing with bad reviews, even though more than 80% of providers are concerned about the damage reviews can cause. Dr. Jay Calvert, the President of the Rhinoplasty Society has a blog on the issue pointing out "there is over 30 doctor reviews sites and none verify the reviewers by any certainty".

Patient data includes anything that someone can use to identify a patient, including the individual’s bio-metrics: Name, Email address, Phone number, Birthday, Appointment dates/times, Test results, Diagnoses, Don’t acknowledge whether the reviewer has ever been a patient. Focus on general office policies. Use generic language whenever possible.

Get VirtualU's 3rd Party Solutions & Advice

Doctors need to be very cautious if they plan to respond to patients’ online reviews. The simple act of admitting that Ms. Jones is your patient publicly violates the HIPAA Privacy rule, and some physicians have been penalized, terminated or a lawsuit may result. VirtualU has the proven case study solutions for removing inappropriate reviews, properly responding to reviews and use of comment boxes, 3rd party verification of reviewers, 3rd party checking for legality and privacy policy of each site and 3rd party take down requests. Our new DoctorU Reputation Computer also comes pre-installed with a reviews management application so that customers can leave reviews for you, on the sites you want them to, right from your office.

DoctorU Practice-Shield Computer


"You own Your Data", and Your Reputation:

Question: “Who owns Your Data?”, your “Virtual You”? Answer: “You Do!” - Mark Zuckerberg at the Facebook Congressional Hearings. That's the purpose of our VirtualU Privacy-Shield Monitoring & Data Removals Service is to secure your data with the standpoint of the EU's “right to be forgotten” laws; and civil and legal laws. At the beginning, “Your Reputation is Everything” was the tag-line for Reputation Saviors. Now, to permanently secure your past, current and future reputation and success, we have invented our own DoctorU Reputation Computer we customize and send to each customer to use at their office and a yearly DoctorU Reputation Protection Plan to have a VirtualU Guru manage your reputation management, social media accounts, news distribution, search engine optimization; and support on retainer, all year. Many of our customers in our case studies have had just one negative review on Yelp and it was ruining their business into bankruptcy. One improper comment could cost you your practice. Improper responses could cost you large fines or your license. No negative or positive review is worth the chance of hurting the long term success of your business, your reputation and your data.


How to avoid a Lawsuit and reduce your Insurance Rates:

That's the hundred percent sure way to avoid a lawsuit. Every story on how a doctor should respond to online reviews contains bad advice from industry professionals and reputation specialists and even Yelp and Google. The first thing you do, is the new review would have been picked up by our VirutalU reputation monitoring software. Then, after we research the source of the reviewer, and review the terms and conditions of each site, all we have on file, then, and only then, would you even consider directly responding to a reviewer with a reply comment. The general rule in reputation management is to leave the negative posts alone, don't create unusual activity to that profile, and don't exacerbate the situation unless you've considered the options; our "20 Ways to Remove a Yelp" and the various options you have to combat each individual situation. In a recent statistical study there is a high correlation of higher insurance rates for doctors with poor reviews on the Internet.

VirtualU's "20 Ways to Remove a Yelp" or remove data from any Website:

Also, reported by two online sources incorrectly to “Self assess your Reputation"! Do-not try to self assess your reputation any more than a patient should self assess their cancer therapy; or try to read the minds of your reviewers, Yelp, a Lawyer nor a Judge. We do have customers that have claimed they can even read the minds of other species. Don't take their advice, but have fun with it. "Have you Googled yourself lately? If you don’t know what’s being said about you or your practice online, you need to self-assess your current reputation." - Online Source. You are best to have gotten a free deep web analysis or have spoken to our VirtualU Guru's, read our reputation management E-book, used our services or have completed reading this report.

Do Not Self-Assess Your Reputation – Get a Free VirtualU Analysis:

Why are all websites online when searching for "how should a doctor respond to reviews" are giving you inherently wrong and inherently negative leading advice on "how" to respond to a patient review; and not considering the dozens of other options you have beforehand?? The news reports from major media outlets, the doctor reputation management companies, and industry analysts are giving you the wrong and bad advice that could immediately turn into a lawsuit. Then, between the lawsuit appearing in Google and the 1 star Yelp, you eventually lose all your customers. VirtualU does have solutions to get you out of this online situation and get you back in business, but lets just say you may have to move to another state to start a new business. Have an experienced VirtualU guru perform a free deep web search, reputation analysis of your name or company and provide you a solution to proper reputation protection, removal options, reviews management and search engine optimization. Better yet, call another reputation management company for their advice, and then call us.

DoctorU Reputation Protection Plan

Examples of Bad Advice by Industry Observers & Reputation Companies:

Another report suggested how to respond to both positive and negative reviews. Both, are bad advice. Responding at all makes that doctor reviews site profile link more popular in the eyes of the website itself and will appear more and more popular to Google. Until... all the negative reviews sites appear directly under your website in Google, forever! From a Reputation Management prospective, Those reviews sites are generally the one's you want to diminish; or foster the placement of reviews on select sites. More of which one's you could flag or control by the T&C of the website.

Another blog gave wrong advice "Don’t ask the patient to take their review down. Whether you ask politely, or threaten the reviewer with a $500 fine, it’s bad practice to ask the reviewer to take their comments down. Instead, focus on addressing their complaint and resolving any problems. If you’re lucky, the patient will appreciate your effort and consider changing or updating their review on their own.". There are several proper case study methods to find who the reviewer actually is, and then ask a customer to take down a review, or any other particular information. In other cases, the customer review could be incorrectly, improperly written or that the customer revealed personal information; so as to get the website to make corrections or whereas the customer may not be able to change or correct the review; and you or the customer asks the website to take it down. These legal and case study options are part of our "20 Ways to Remove a Yelp" document and tutorial.

Dealing with Reviews Websites with a Reputation Management Perspective:

When researching a company, product or a person, 90% first look you up on Google and 75% of respondents said they would not do business with someone who had negative information showing up in the search engines. From a reputation management perspective, it's our job to control the search engines and the message. From VirtualU "Online reputation management is correctly defined as the process of taking the correct and legal steps for taking full control of the search results related to you our your company. It is accomplished by removing, replacing or diminishing unwanted information found on the internet with hundreds to thousands of new websites, new listings and positive press.” This has the effect of directing people directly to your website, your social media and to your message, instead of having Google and Healthgrades deciding about your reputation.

Reviews Management of Reviews Sites & Directories:

As a guideline, you want to control which reviews sites appear in Google and which sites you should foster reviews from your customers. We have various case studies and proven methods and software installed on the DoctorU Computer for your office. This can be setup properly for you with the idea of reputation protection, the first time, depending on your situation and manage the online reviews. We have current customers and current case studies where we control what links appear in the search results and we control which sites customers leave reviews on. https://virtualu.net/product/doctoru-reputation-management-computer/

DoctorU will help you get more Reviews and more Referrals:

According to a 2016 survey, 70% of consumers said they’ll leave a review for a business if they’re asked to. We'll help you find the methods to generate customer reviews that are best for you. Some other offline methods are the Yelp restaurant secret shoppers method, Comment cards, 3rd party questionnaires. It is important to note that most comment boards are not highly monitored. It is appropriate in some cases, to respond to comments with text written that is purely promotional. The best method, in our opinion, is to use the comment sections of all websites to your advantage, while also abiding by the websites terms and conditions. The comments could include information about your new coupon, text and links to your newest press release, or even links back to your social media and video's for people to watch.

From the Terms and Conditions Perspective:

- Facebook Hearings on “your data”
- Recent changes in Laws “right to be forgotten”
- Copies of each websites T&C & privacy policy
- How to use the T&C's to your advantage

From the Legal Perspective:

- How to sue to reveal reviewer
- How and when to sue Yelp
- Legal Reasons to remove data
- Legal Requests to remove data
- Google Legal & Take-down requests

Bonus Trade-Secret Report: 20 Ways to Remove a Yelp or from any Website”
Order our Reputation DIY: Includes the how-to video tutorials of each "20 Ways to Remove a Yelp"

- Subscribe to get the 2 Full Reports


About VirtualU:
424-249-0271


VirtualU’s founders invented reputation management in 1996 at Art Data Interactive; comparison shopping and reviews management at Shop.com in 2001, reputation management at Reputation Saviors in 2010 and on May 1st, 2018 after the Facebook congressional hearings on your private data, your “VirtualU” Privacy-Shield! VirtualU has served football players, baseball, hockey, cheerleaders, beauty contestants, entertainers in music, books, movies, professionals in the stock market, banks, doctors, dentists, attorneys, those in public office like school teachers, police officers, military, individuals, parents of children, privacy experts and media providers.

https://virtualu.net/2019/09/13/how-to-respond-guide-on-the-doctor-patient-reviews-dichotomy-hippa-patient-privacy-laws/

Monday, September 9, 2019

DoctorU Online Reputation Management

DoctorU
Press Release: September 5th 2019 – VirtualU to launch our “DoctorU Practice-Shield Computer” & “DoctorU Reputation Protection Plan” to provide individual Doctors and their medical practice with all the information and support they need to fully control their online presence, in-house. VirtualU provides you with our 25 years of experience with hundreds of proven solutions and case studies to virtually guarantee the success and growth of your practice; like having the highest paid expert Internet Attorney on retainer. The VirtualU Privacy-Shield launched on May 1st 2018 after the Facebook Congressional Hearings is to secure your “virtual you” by providing a reputation monitoring APP and a business and personal data removals service for individuals, families and members of the government and military.

https://facebook.com/DoctorU-Reputation-Management-107716000614537/

Unlike other professionals or service providers, who can give as good as they get in answering reviewers, medical professionals must tiptoe through a legal minefield in responding to online reviews. That required reticence is the result of the federal patient privacy law known as HIPAA. The law (officially known Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) places strict limitations on what a doctor can and cannot write in a review section. Medical professionals are barred from so much as acknowledging a reviewer has been a patient, let alone defending treatment decisions. DoctorU provides you over 20 proven methods to sue, respond, remove, replace or diminish online reviews or any other unwanted information from Yelp, Google or any website on the Internet; until you control the search results and what appears about your name.

The DoctorU Computer is pre-designed to run 24/7 to monitor and manage a medical practice’s online reputation, proper and legal reviews management, their search engine optimization, social media management, public relations, their online privacy and protection of company data. The unique computer comes pre-customized by a VirtualU Guru unique for each customer and comes pre-installed with a full VirtualU Do It Yourself Kit, the software, hardware, APPs, monitoring, documents, social media logins, company data and support in order for you and your office staff can dominate your online market and have the solutions right at your fingertips. The computer provides your office with a second, private, secure computer for customer to legally leave reviews at your office.

https://virtualu.net/product/doctoru-reputation-management-computer/

The DoctorU Protection Plan comes automatically with a customized DoctorU Computer for your office. The DoctorU protection plan was designed by our VirtualU Guru’s using over 30 years experience of using tried and true methods to reduced risk from online attacks, minimizes potential lawsuits, protects your brand value and secures your long-term success. The protection plan includes real-time help with issues like legal actions, data take-down requests, Internet monitoring, reviews management, search engine management, social media management, brand protection, data protection, privacy and security. Your office also gets access to our network of doctors to make connections, get referrals and grow your practice. We then use this power of our network to solve any issue or reach any goal, before it becomes an impossible task.

https://virtualu.net/product/doctoru-reputation-protection-plan/

About VirtualU:

VirtualU’s founders invented reputation management in 1996, reviews management in 2001, online reputation management in 2010 and on May 1st, 2018 after the Facebook congressional hearings on controlling your data, your “VirtualU”! VirtualU has served pro football players, baseball, hockey, cheerleaders and beauty contestants, high profile entertainers in music, books, movies, prominent professionals in the stock market, banks, doctors, dentists, attorneys, those in public office like school teachers, police officers, military, individuals, parents of children, privacy experts and other media providers.

https://virtualu.net/about-us/