As previously discussed, a company should not necessarily rely on implementing a change to its Terms of Service contract by simply posting the revised contract on its website; the other party to the contract, the customer, needs to be aware of the change. This principle applies even if the company puts a statement in its Terms of Service agreement warning the customer that the agreement will be changed without notice. As Eric Goldman points out on his Technology & Marketing Law blog, stating that the Terms of Service agreement can effectively be changed at any time without notice, could render the entire agreement unenforceable.

The California Department of Public Health assessed an administrative penalty of $250,000 on Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Bellflower for allowing employees and physicians unauthorized access to a patient’s medical records. The penalty was assessed under a new medical privacy provision of California’s Health and Safety Code.