data privacy
Marriott International Resolves State Attorneys General and Federal Trade Commission Investigations into 2018 Starwood Database Security Incident
MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC. | October 10, 2024
Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR, “Marriott”) has reached final resolutions with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 49 U.S. State Attorneys General and the District of Columbia in relation to the 2018 Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide guest reservations database security incident. The resolution with the State Attorneys General includes an agreement to pay $52 million. As indicated in the agreements with the FTC and the State Attorneys General, Marriott makes no admission of liability with respect to the underlying allegations. As part of the resolutions with the FTC and the State Attorneys General, Marriott will cont...
Data Privacy Alert: Who’s Responsible for Personal Data at a Hotel?
Bob Braun | March 21, 2023
By Jim Butler, Robert Braun One of the most valuable assets of a hotel brand is information – detailed personal information about guests at their hotels, participants in their loyalty programs, and visitors to their websites. This information allows hotel brands to focus on creating guest loyalty, acquiring potential guests, engaging in effective marketing, expanding market share, and creating properties and services that entice and satisfy hotel guests. Because of this, hotel brands have long contended that they “own” hotel guest data and have unencumbered rights to use it, without respect to the interests of hotel owners and even t...
CCPA, CPRA and the Changing Privacy Landscape
Cendyn | January 20, 2023
The protection of customer data is a crucial component of every hotelier’s digital strategy. Given the recent passage of new legal provisions in California, online privacy concerns are more important than ever. What are the new measures, and how will they impact the hospitality business? Here’s what you need to know. 2023 is a brand-new year. And now that the confetti has been swept up, the champagne bottles have been recycled and the “Auld Lang Syne”s have been sung, it’s time to take a look at what’s on the horizon for the hospitality industry. Many hoteliers are already aware of several important legal changes that have t...
Hotel Data Security Update: Hotels, Hotel Owners and Employee Personal Information
Bob Braun | October 26, 2022
By Jim Butler, Bob Braun Hotel operators and owners have long been focused on the privacy of the personal information they collect from guests – because of the global nature of the hospitality business, hotel brands have focused on complying with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and beginning in 2018, the Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the first comprehensive law designed to protect the privacy of consumers’ personal information. Businesses that are subject to the GDPR and the CCPA are required, among other things, to respond to consumers who wish to view the personal information collected by the business...
Why Hotels Need “Visibility” to Avoid Data Privacy Liability
Jim Butler | March 9, 2022
By Jim Butler and the Global Hospitality Group® The rules around data privacy and cybersecurity are constantly evolving. In order to protect themselves from liability, hotel owners should pay attention to ongoing legal developments and learn more about their own data infrastructure. Bob Braun, senior member of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® and Co-Chair of the Firm’s Cybersecurity & Privacy Group, explains why hotels need to understand exactly what data they hold, where it is stored and who has access to it. Facing the Knowledge Gap: Why Hotels Need “Visibility” to Avoid Data Privacy Liability by Bob Braun, Hotel ...
LEVL Releases Device Intelligence Platform for Hospitality Network Industry
LEVL Technologies | May 5, 2021
Scale-Validated Platform Eliminates Issues Resulting from MAC Address Randomization Palo Alto, Calif. – May 5, 2021 – LEVL Technologies, Inc. today released its LEVL-IQ™ device intelligence and identity platform, which resolves issues caused by MAC address randomization which poses challenges to the hospitality network industry, while offering intelligence and insights on all devices in the network. As the need for consumer privacy has increasingly pushed device and OS manufacturers to incorporate MAC address randomization into their products, hospitality network providers have had to evolve to ensure an optimal guest network experie...
Is Guest Privacy Still Sacrosanct?
Larry Mogelonsky | October 30, 2019
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Call me old-fashioned. To me, a hotel’s guest list is completely confidential, released only on a need-to-know basis. This protects not only the guest’s privacy but also the hotel from the likes of paparazzi, over-zealous bill collectors and jealous spouses. And as it concerns high status guests, privacy is tantamount to loyalty. In all of the hotels that I’ve worked with, mentioning anyone on the guest list in a public space where other non-staffers were in earshot was strictly verboten. To do so was grounds for dismissal. There were absolutely no exceptions. Sure, after the ...
The Deadline for GDPR is Approaching Fast. Is Your Hotel Ready?
February 20, 2018
Within the hospitality community, you cannot avoid the topic of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation); discussion of its impact is everywhere. And for good reason. There are only a few months to go until the May 25, 2018 compliance deadline for GDPR, which is a game changer for hoteliers as it introduces a new and comprehensive set of strict data protection regulations. By this date, all hoteliers will be required to demonstrate a "reasonable level" of personal data protection. When it comes to data security, there are few sectors as vulnerable to threats as the hotel industry so as hoteliers face a need for new systems, processes a...
