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Practice Areas
Privacy
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May 14, 2013
Google Says Users Are Rehashing Old Privacy Claims
Google Inc. asked a California federal judge Tuesday to dismiss a putative class action accusing the company of violating privacy laws by storing and aggregating user data under its universal privacy policy, arguing that the plaintiffs' new claims were rehashed versions of ones dismissed last year.
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May 14, 2013
UK Data Regulator Launches Privacy Sweep Across Web
More than 250 websites based in the United Kingdom are under scrutiny from the country's data protection regulator, which said Friday that it is taking a close look at their privacy policies and how much they divulge about the sharing and storage of personal data.
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May 14, 2013
EU Privacy Reform Costs Uncertain, UK Watchdog Says
The United Kingdom's data protection regulator released an independent study on Tuesday revealing that the vast majority of businesses in the country are unable to estimate compliance costs under proposed European Union data reforms.
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May 13, 2013
AP Says DOJ Wrongly Seized Reporters' Phone Records
The U.S. Department of Justice may have violated the Associated Press' constitutional rights by secretly gathering AP reporters' telephone records without warning or disclosing reasons for the probe, the news agency said Monday.
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May 13, 2013
US-EU Free Trade Talks Shouldn't Touch Privacy, EPIC Says
The Electronic Privacy Information Center on Friday urged the U.S. government to steer clear of privacy issues in upcoming talks on a comprehensive trade and investment deal with the European Union, saying that the topic is too complex and would derail negotiations.
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May 13, 2013
Bloomberg Names Data Compliance Chief In Wake Of Breach
Bloomberg LP on Friday announced the appointment of a new client data compliance officer in the wake of concerns raised by clients that Bloomberg News reporters had access to customer relationship management data through their use of the Bloomberg terminal.
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May 13, 2013
Calif. AG Won't Back Down After Delta Privacy Suit Setback
A California judge last week tossed the state attorney general's first attempt to enforce a statute requiring websites to post privacy policies clearly, but attorneys say the hiccup won't deter the attorney general or other state regulators from continuing to aggressively pursue companies they believe aren't handling consumer data properly.
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May 13, 2013
Web Activist Swartz's Family Can't Expose Investigator IDs
A Massachusetts federal judge on Monday refused a request by the family of Internet activist Aaron Swartz to release the names of individuals involved in his investigation and prosecution for the alleged dissemination of millions of restricted academic articles, citing the potential for retaliation.
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May 13, 2013
App Privacy Bill Gives Gov't Too Much Power, Group Says
The Marketing Research Association on Friday criticized a new bill designed to boost privacy on mobile devices by requiring app developers to get consent from consumers before collecting data, saying it would give the government too much power.
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May 13, 2013
Fired Exec Says Research Firm Illegally Tracked Applicants
A former executive for ReSearch Pharmaceutical Services Inc. contends the pharmaceutical research company illegally fired him for objecting to its practice of tracking job applicants' religion, sexual orientation and other personal details, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Pennsylvania federal court.
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May 13, 2013
OfficeMax Settles ZIP Code Collection Suit
OfficeMax North America Inc. on Friday agreed to hand out $600,000 in merchandise vouchers to settle a proposed class action accusing the company of illegally asking to record customers’ ZIP codes during credit card transactions.
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May 10, 2013
Pandora Customers Bring New Suit Over Personal Data Use
A putative class of users of Pandora Media Inc.'s Internet radio took a second whack at the company Thursday, amending a previously tossed complaint with more information about how the users are damaged by Pandora's allegedly improper use of their personal information.
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May 10, 2013
FBI, US Attys Reading Emails Without Warrants, ACLU Says
The FBI and several U.S. attorneys' offices have become the latest federal agencies to admit that they read some private electronic communications without obtaining a warrant, despite recent court rulings and legislative proposals that deem the practice to be unconstitutional, the American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday.
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May 10, 2013
Wash. Courts Data Breach Exposes States' Vulnerability
The Washington state court system on Thursday revealed a data breach that compromised the Social Security and driver's license numbers of more than 1 million individuals, an incident that attorneys say highlights the vulnerability of state databases that are often not afforded the necessary resources to protect the valuable personal data they hold.
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May 10, 2013
Bloomberg Restricts Its Journalists From Client Login Info
Bloomberg LP reportedly said Friday it had taken steps to limit its journalists' access to client login data on the New York-based financial news and information company's trading terminals after complaints by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., one of its major clients.
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May 10, 2013
Contractor Group Opposes Cybersecurity Research Nonprofit
A contractor trade group said Thursday that it won't support the National Institute of Standards and Technology's plan to create a Federally Funded Research and Development Center for cybersecurity, saying the institute risks establishing a redundant organization that will unfairly benefit from noncompetitive research funding.
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May 10, 2013
$10M Steve Madden TCPA Deal Gets Judge's OK
A California federal judge on Tuesday approved a settlement worth up to $10 million that resolves a putative class action alleging shoe retailer Steve Madden Ltd. sent unwanted text message advertisements to cellphone users in violation of a federal privacy law.
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May 10, 2013
RBS, Kroger Can't Duck Arbitration In Robo Call Action
A California federal judge refused Thursday to reconsider sending to arbitration a proposed class action over alleged robo calls to consumers by Kroger Co. and a Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC subsidiary, saying that case law "tucked away" in a footnote didn't change his analysis.
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May 10, 2013
Lawmaker Wants App Makers To Ask For Data Mining Consent
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., introduced legislation Thursday designed to boost privacy on mobile devices by requiring app developers to get consent from consumers before collecting data and to securely maintain the data they collect.
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May 9, 2013
Do-Not-Track Moves Forward, But Deadline Doubts Linger
A working group tasked with establishing an online tracking standard concluded its final in-person meeting Wednesday with a pledge to complete the mechanism by July, but several participants remained skeptical that the group could overcome a long-standing lack of consensus to meet its goal.
Expert Analysis
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No Clear Rule On Warrantless Cellphone Searches
When a person is arrested with a cellphone on him, law enforcement officers will likely want to search the phone’s contents. Courts have focused on different issues in determining whether to allow a warrantless cellphone search, and there is no standard analysis, say Bridget Rohde and Sara Crasson of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.
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Difficult Path To Certification Of Data Breach Classes
A Maine federal court's recent decision in In re Hannaford Brothers Company Data Security Breach Litigation demonstrates the difficulty of certifying a class in the data breach context, and signals that in order for data breach plaintiffs to meet their burden as to predominance, they must first obtain a supporting opinion from an expert, say Mark Szpak and Daniel Routh of Ropes & Gray LLP.
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Litigation Support At A Crossroads
Despite recession-driven cost pressures that have resulted in the downsizing of nonlawyer personnel at law firms, many litigation support departments are growing. In a recent survey, half of respondents indicated that their function has grown in size in the past three years, and more than half of respondents indicated that current staffing levels are inadequate for the projected needs of the coming year, say experts at Epiq Systems and Georgetown University Law Center.
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How EU Data Protection Laws Apply To Mobile Apps
European data protection regulators recently issued a 30-page opinion addressing how mobile apps should comply with EU data protection law. While the opinion is not binding, it gives a clear indication of how data protection authorities in the EU would interpret their national laws and therefore should be taken into account when developing new apps targeted at EU individuals, say attorneys with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
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Challenges In Conducting Breach Investigations: Part 1
Companies' data breach and cyber intrusion responses are commonly too narrowly shaped by state security breach notification requirements, industry rules governing payment card breaches and the absence of a direct legal obligation requiring a more comprehensive review. In critical instances, these responses are insufficient, says Kim Peretti of Alston & Bird LLP.
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Supreme Court Tames Class Action Frankenstein's Monster
The unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision in Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Knowles will be praised by class action defense counsel as comporting with the congressional intent of the Class Action Fairness Act and ramifying the pleading strategies used by putative class representatives to maximize the litigation leverage of the "Frankenstein's monster" created by class actions, say attorneys with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
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Italian Court's Google Decision: A Significant Precedent
The appellate court in Milan recently published its decision overturning the conviction of three Google Inc. executives for allowing video depicting the bullying of an autistic teenager to be uploaded to the Italian Google Video website. The opinion reduces the potential burdens facing content-hosting providers and other similar Internet companies, say attorneys with Jones Day.
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7 Reasons To Do Pro Bono Work
Research shows that helping others and cultivating social relationships makes us happier and that generous people live longer, healthier lives. These are just a few of the countless reasons to create time in our busy schedules to do pro bono and charitable work this year, says Anne Brafford of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP.
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FTC's New Online Ad Guidance: Takeaways For Advertisers
Companies need to incorporate the Federal Trade Commission's new guidance into their online and mobile advertising and promotions. The guidance uses examples to illustrate how to apply traditional advertising law standards to small screens and new mediums, and suggests that many current approaches relied upon are inadequate, say attorneys with Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP.
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And Now A Word From The Panel ...
One of the most fascinating facets of watching the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is trying to guess not simply whether an MDL will be created, but where it will be located. Take, for example, In re Mirena IUD Products Liability and Marketing Litigation, slated to be heard at the March 21 hearing, says Alan Rothman of Kaye Scholer LLP.