Stacey A. Shadden

McGrath North is excited to announce new leadership for its board of directors, practice groups and key committees effective January 1, 2022.  

McGrath North is sponsoring and conducting our 14th Annual Seminar for Accounting Professionals in Omaha, Nebraska.  

On July 16, 2020, the European Union’s (EU) highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, struck down the EU-US Privacy Shield in a case known as Schrems II. The Privacy Shield was instrumental for many American companies, as the framework allowed for legal transfers of data between the U.S. and EU. Such a framework was necessary due to the strong data protections that exist in Europe, most notably the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Under the Privacy Shield framework, American businesses would effectively promise to hold themselves to the same standards as European businesses in handling personal data of European residents, thus allowing free transfers of data between the jurisdictions.  

On March 24, 2022, Utah became the fourth state to pass a comprehensive privacy law, the Utah Consumer Privacy Act (“UCPA”). The UCPA is similar to both Colorado’s Consumer Privacy Act (“CPA”) and Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”), and in certain respects follows California’s Consumer Privacy Act (as amended) and California’s Privacy Rights Act (collectively, “CCPA/CPRA”), although CCPA/CPRA continues to have a broader reach, with lower application thresholds, than each of UCPA, CPA and VCDPA.  

Data protection certifications are a great way to give your organization an edge against your competitors when it comes to scoring new clients and proving up your data privacy and security compliance. However, understanding all the different certifications available and which certifications will provide the most value for organization can be tricky. This month, Stacey Shadden and Caroline Pieper discuss the most common types of certifications and how they can be beneficial for your organization as you consider getting certified!  

This month’s episode of Privacy is Power focuses on the importance of employee privacy and security training. Reports show that as many as 90% of breaches start from social engineering or phishing attacks that an organization’s technical security solutions can’t protect against. Training an organization’s workforce who handle sensitive data will have an immediate impact on an organization’s level of data security, and not properly training the workforce can be costly and detrimental. Don’t trust that employees know how to properly protect data or implement proper procedure, reach out to McGrath North’s Privacy and Cybersecurity team today to create a tailored training guide to efficiently ensure employees know proper protocol.