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Cybersecurity & Privacy
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May 09, 2024
Amazon Shakes Wash. Suit Premised On Calif. Wiretap Claims
A Washington federal judge has tossed a putative class action accusing Amazon.com Inc. of unlawfully recording chat conversations with consumers, finding that the plaintiff couldn't sustain a suit containing only California claims because the e-commerce giant's usage agreement makes clear that Washington law governs such disputes.
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May 09, 2024
Maryland Enacts Data Privacy, Kids' Digital Safety Laws
Maryland's governor on Thursday signed data privacy legislation that strictly limits the personal information that companies can collect from consumers and a separate bill to boost online safeguards for children that's modeled after a California bill that's currently embroiled in a constitutional challenge.
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May 09, 2024
Amazon, Walmart Face Dem Questions Over 'Dynamic Pricing'
Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown on Thursday raised concerns to Amazon and Walmart about corporations hiking prices by exploiting customer data and pricing algorithms, saying it undermines consumers' ability to comparison shop and save money.
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May 09, 2024
USPTO Says TM Applicants' Data Was Accidentally Leaked
About 14,000 trademark applicants have been notified by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that some of their personal information had accidentally been released publicly, with the agency saying it happened over an eight-month period.
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May 09, 2024
Avid Can't Escape Spoofing Suit From 48 States, Judge Says
A suit from nearly 50 states accusing Avid Telecom of allowing billions of illegal robocalls can proceed to discovery after an Arizona federal judge ruled Wednesday that more fact-finding would be needed to determine whether the company should be considered a common carrier.
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May 09, 2024
DOJ Task Force To Target Healthcare Monopoly, Collusion
The U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division sharpened its focus Thursday on healthcare platforms that combine doctors with insurers, data and more in what the administration's top competition official called the "alarming" accumulation of assets.
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May 09, 2024
AT&T Appeals $57M Fine For Selling Customer Location Data
AT&T is appealing a $57 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission on allegations it failed to protect customer location data, calling the agency order an "abuse of discretion."
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May 09, 2024
Buchanan Ingersoll Adds Marine Corps Cyber Pro As Counsel
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran and cybersecurity expert with more than 25 years of legal experience has come aboard Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC's data privacy practice group as a counsel.
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May 08, 2024
AI Art Cos. Fight Uphill To Toss Artists' Copyright Suit
Attorneys for four companies that make or distribute software that creates images with text prompts urged a California federal judge Wednesday to rethink his tentative opinion to allow some claims by a proposed class of artists to move forward, with one warning it could lead to hundreds of thousands of similar suits.
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May 08, 2024
AGs Blast Federal Data Privacy Law's Proposed State Override
California joined attorneys general from more than a dozen other states and Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to urge Congress to ensure that proposed federal data privacy legislation sets a "floor, not a ceiling" that would preserve more stringent protections states have enacted and allow them to add new laws to address rapid technological developments.
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May 08, 2024
Tribes And Groups Urge 9th Circ. To Uphold TikTok Ban Pause
Free speech and internet advocacy groups, as well a Native American nonprofit and two tribes, are urging the Ninth Circuit to uphold a lower court's decision that blocks Montana from banning social app TikTok, arguing that First Amendment protections include such media platforms.
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May 08, 2024
Biden Signs Law To Protect Children From Online Exploitation
President Joe Biden has signed into law a bipartisan bill aimed at curbing online child sex exploitation by strengthening requirements for social media companies and other service providers to report abuse to the nation's centralized reporting system.
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May 08, 2024
Pa. Panel Scrutinizes Missteps In 2020 Election Machine Fracas
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Wednesday brought up apparent missteps by both sides of a fight stemming from third-party inspections of a conservative county's voting machines, started by the county commissioners falling in with the hunt for fraud in the 2020 election and the state pushing back.
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May 08, 2024
Bill To Undo SEC Crypto Accounting Bulletin Passes House
Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to overturn the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's controversial cryptocurrency accounting guidance despite protests from Democrats to take a more targeted approach to amend the directive and a White House pledge to veto the bill.
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May 08, 2024
Madison Square Garden Escapes Federal Suit Over Facial ID
A proposed class action challenging Madison Square Garden's use of facial recognition to ban attorneys from its properties was dismissed Wednesday, with a New York federal judge ruling that contracting with the third-party provider of the software did not break the law.
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May 08, 2024
9th Circ. Says Calif. Can Give Gun Buyer Info To Researchers
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday declined to revive a constitutional challenge to a California law requiring the state to provide biographical information about firearm purchasers and those with carry-conceal permits to accredited research institutions studying gun violence, saying the information at issue isn't highly personal and doesn't implicate the right to privacy.
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May 08, 2024
Robins Kaplan File Flub Bad Look For Both Sides, Panel Says
A Manhattan appeals panel expressed concern Wednesday that Robins Kaplan LLP had poked through an opposing party's Dropbox database that was accidentally shared in investor litigation, while also criticizing the other side for failing to catch the error.
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May 08, 2024
Coldwell Banker's Lockboxes Draw BIPA Suit
Coldwell Banker has been sued in Illinois state court by a proposed class of employees who claim it violated Illinois' biometric privacy law by failing to get their informed consent before requiring them to scan their fingerprints to access biometric lockboxes that store keys for rental units shown to potential customers.
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May 08, 2024
NAR Magazine Subscribers Drop Data-Selling Claims
A proposed class has mediated and permanently dismissed claims in Michigan federal court accusing the National Association of Realtors of illegally selling, exchanging and renting the personal data of subscribers to the NAR's Realtor magazine.
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May 08, 2024
Japanese Crypto Exchange Coincheck Eyes US Listing In '24
Simpson Thacher-led Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck Group BV plans to complete a long-awaited merger with a special-purpose acquisition company by the year's second or third quarter, a combination that would make it the second U.S.-listed crypto venue.
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May 08, 2024
Boston Man Says He Was Chinese Activist, Not Gov't Spy
A Massachusetts resident denied charges of acting as a Chinese government agent by allegedly reporting pro-democracy activity in the Boston area, arguing that he is merely a local community activist whose political beliefs happen to align with those of the People's Republic of China.
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May 08, 2024
Mintz Lands Manatt's Boston Office Founder, 2 Other Attys
Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC announced Wednesday that it has added two new members to its Boston office for its data and privacy litigation and investigations practice.
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May 07, 2024
Google Founder And CEO Eyed In Texas Deposition Push
Texas and allied states have pressed a Texas federal judge not to release Google co-founder Sergey Brin and CEO Sundar Pichai from sitting for depositions in a suit alleging the tech company illegally dominated the online advertising market.
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May 07, 2024
DOJ's 'Dr. Doom' Sees AI's Crime-Fighting Abilities, And Risks
The U.S. Department of Justice is using artificial intelligence to bolster its investigations, including into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco on Tuesday at a cybersecurity conference at which she dove into the beneficial uses of AI alongside its threats to security and democracy.
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May 07, 2024
MultiPlan, Insurance Cos. Accused Of Algorithmic Collusion
A medical provider has lodged a proposed class action in Illinois federal court accusing MultiPlan and major insurance companies, including UnitedHealth, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente and Cigna, of using pricing tools to systematically underpay out-of-network providers.
Expert Analysis
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Tips For Balanced Board Oversight After A Cyberincident
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's cybersecurity disclosure rules, as well as recent regulatory enforcement actions bringing board governance under scrutiny, continue to push boards toward active engagement in relation to their cyber-oversight role, despite it being unclear what a board's level of involvement should be, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
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What Cos. Are Reporting Under New SEC Cybersecurity Rule
Four months after its effective date, 14 companies have made disclosures under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's mandatory cybersecurity incident reporting rule, and some early trends are emerging, including a possible rush to file, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Data Protection Steps To Consider After Biden Privacy Order
A recent White House executive order casts a spotlight on the criticality of securing sensitive content communications, presenting challenges and necessitating a recalibration of practices, especially for lawyers, says Camilo Artiga-Purcell at Kiteworks.
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The Future Of BIPA Insurance Litigation After Visual Pak
A recent Illinois appellate court decision, National Fire Insurance v. Visual Pak, may have altered the future of insurance litigation under the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act by diametrically opposing a prominent Seventh Circuit ruling that found insurance coverage for violations of the act, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.
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Consumer Privacy Takeaways From FTC Extraterritorial Action
With what appears to be its first privacy-related consent agreement with a non-U.S. business, the Federal Trade Commission establishes that its reach is extraterritorial and that consumer internet browsing data is sensitive data, and there are lessons for any multinational business that handles consumer information, say Olivia Greer and Alexis Bello at Weil.
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Series
Whitewater Kayaking Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Whether it's seeing clients and their issues from a new perspective, or staying nimble in a moment of intense challenge, the lessons learned from whitewater kayaking transcend the rapids of a river and prepare attorneys for the courtroom and beyond, says Matthew Kent at Alston & Bird.
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Navigating Kentucky's New Consumer Privacy Law
On April 4, Kentucky passed a new law that imposes obligations on affected businesses relating to the collection, use and sale of personal data — and those operating within the state must prepare for a new regulatory landscape governing the handling of consumer data, say Risa Boerner and Martha Vázquez at Fisher Phillips.
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This Earth Day, Consider How Your Firm Can Go Greener
As Earth Day approaches, law firms and attorneys should consider adopting more sustainable practices to reduce their carbon footprint — from minimizing single-use plastics to purchasing carbon offsets for air travel — which ultimately can also reduce costs for clients, say M’Lynn Phillips and Lisa Walters at IMS Legal Strategies.
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New Proposal Signals Sharper Enforcement Focus At CFIUS
Last week's proposed rule aimed at broadening the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States' enforcement authority over foreign investments and increasing penalties for violations signals that CFIUS intends to continue expanding its aggressive monitoring of national security issues, say attorneys at Kirkland.
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4 Ways AI Tools Can Improve Traditional Merger Analyses
Government officials at the American Bar Association's annual antitrust spring meeting last week reinforced the view that competition cases will increasingly rely on sophisticated data analysis, so companies will likewise need to use Big Tech quantitative techniques to improve traditional merger analyses, say Patrick Bajari, Gianmarco Calanchi and Tega Akati-Udi at Keystone.
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What FinCEN Proposed Customer ID Number Change Means
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recent request for comment on changing a requirement for banks to collect full Social Security numbers at account sign-up represents an important opportunity for banks to express their preferability, as communicating sensitive information online may carry fraud or cybersecurity risks, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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How Companies Can Use Big Data As A Strategic Asset
Artificial intelligence technology powered by big data has the potential to create radical improvements to business operations, but if big data is improperly protected or monetized, this same information can give competitors similar advantages, or at the very least undermine a company's edge, say Gary Weinstein and Hudson Peters at Faegre Drinker.
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Cos. Should Mind Website Tech As CIPA Suits Keep Piling Up
Businesses should continue evaluating their use of website technologies and other data-gathering software and review the disclosures in their privacy policies, amid an increase so far in 2024 of class actions alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act's pen register and trap-and-trace provisions, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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Questions Persist After Ruling Skirts $925M TCPA Award Issue
After an Oregon federal court's recent Wakefield v. ViSalus ruling that the doctrine of constitutional avoidance precluded it from deciding whether a $925 million Telephone Consumer Protection Act damages award was constitutionally sound, further guidance is needed on when statutory damages violate due process, says Michael Klotz at O'Melveny.
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An NYDFS-Regulated Bank's Guide To Proper Internal Audits
As certification deadlines for compliance with the New York State Department of Financial Services’ transaction monitoring and cybersecurity regulations loom, lawyers should remember that the NYDFS offers no leeway for best efforts — and should ensure robust auditing and recordkeeping processes for clients, say attorneys at Arnall Golden.