Emerging Issues in Privacy and Data Security: A 2012 Perspective

KANDI PARSONS is an attorney with the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection in Bureau of Consumer Protection, at the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. Ms. Parsons investigates and prosecutes violations of U.S. federal laws governing the privacy and security of consumer information and has worked on the FTC’s enforcement actions under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Safeguards and Privacy Rules, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Before joining the Commission staff, Ms. Parsons was an associate with Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C., specializing in health care privacy. Ms. Parsons served as a law clerk to the Honorable John Steadman of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. She received her J.D., summa cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. in English from Columbia University.

Aaron Brauer-Rieke is the Ron Plesser Fellow at the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) where he focuses on consumer privacy and internet identity.

Prior to joining CDT, Aaron worked as a law clerk at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where he focused on patent and digital media litigation. Aaron also interned with the ACLU of Northern California, where he focused on privacy, free speech, and emerging technology issues.

Aaron earned his J.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where he served as the Senior Online Editor of the California Law Review, an Editor of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, and a Fellow with the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Prior to law school, Aaron worked as web developer and digital media specialist. Aaron graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy from Pacific Lutheran University.

Deborah Gascard Wolf, CIPP, CIPP/G, joined Booz Allen Hamilton as an Executive Advisor in Cyber Health privacy this past February after a 35 year career at the Internal Revenue Service. At her retirement, she was the head of the IRS’ Office of Privacy, Information Protection & Data Security and reported directly to the Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support as the IRS’ central resource on identity theft, privacy and information protection program matters. As Director, Deborah elevated attention to identity theft concerns and established consistency on IRS policies to protect taxpayer and employee privacy and personal and sensitive information. She is currently focused on providing privacy and cyberspace services for CMS and HHS.

Deborah began her career with IRS in 1975 as a revenue officer in New Jersey. She held positions of increasing responsibility involving taxpayer advocacy and compliance in several offices including the Philadelphia Service Center. In 2000, Deborah joined the IRS’ Candidate Development Program and accepted her first executive assignment as deputy to the Modernization Officer for Service Center Transition. She later was appointed as the director of the Small Business/Self-Employed Customer Account Services Re-engineering Office and as the business requirements director for the Filing and Payment Compliance Modernization Project. As the project director of the Private Debt Collection program, Deborah was responsible for overseeing the design and implementation of a complete modernized process covering information exchange as well as operational issues. She was appointed to the privacy directorship in 2007.

Deborah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers College, Rutgers University.

Kim Wilcoxon is a partner in Thompson Hine’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation practice group and a member of the firm’s Privacy and Information Security team. Kim has significant experience advising employers and other benefit plan professionals on welfare benefit plan matters and frequently speaks and publishes articles on such topics as HIPAA, health care reform, wellness programs and other group health plan compliance topics. She regularly assists group health plans and business associates with HIPAA compliance and facilitates HIPAA privacy and security training programs for her clients’ employees. In addition, she helps clients respond to increased welfare plan costs and legal changes by analyzing plan designs and associated risks; closely following legal developments; and consulting on issues relating to documentation and communications, claims and appeals, COBRA, consumer driven health plans, nondiscrimination requirements, cafeteria plan rules, and other welfare benefit matters.