Cybersecurity & Privacy

  • December 03, 2024

    CFPB Pitches Plan For Tighter Regulation Of Data Brokers

    In a late push before the Biden administration's end, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau moved Tuesday to clamp down on the so-called data broker industry with a new draft rule that pivots off existing credit reporting protections for consumers.  

  • December 02, 2024

    Apple Accused Of Gagging Workers, Spying On Their IPhones

    A manager at Apple claims the tech giant is stomping on employees' rights by forbidding discussion of coworkers' compensation and encouraging the use of personal iPhones at work so that it can snoop on workers, according to a lawsuit lodged Monday in California state court.

  • December 02, 2024

    Google Can't Yet Appeal Ruling Preserving Kids Tracking Suit

    A California federal judge on Monday declined to let Google immediately appeal his earlier ruling leaving intact allegations the search giant surreptitiously tracks children's web activity, finding Google hasn't shown that the issues underlying that ruling warrant an appeal at this stage in the litigation.

  • December 02, 2024

    Bipartisan Bill Calls For AI Studies From Financial Regulators

    Leaders of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee want to codify their commitment to regulating and cultivating the use of artificial intelligence in the financial services industry with legislation introduced Monday that directs financial and housing regulators to produce reports on the use of AI in their respective sectors.

  • December 02, 2024

    Biden's Pardon Is Another Blow To Special Counsel Probes

    President Joe Biden's pardon of his son over the weekend marks the latest example of a special counsel investigation fizzling and raises doubts over the future use of such probes, which can drag on for years and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

  • December 02, 2024

    Consulting Firm Says Insurer On Hook For $7.6M Deal

    A consulting firm told an Illinois federal court that its insurer must reimburse it for a $7.6 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice relating to a lawsuit accusing the firm of allowing personal information to be compromised, maintaining that the litigation fell within its policy's scope.

  • December 02, 2024

    ByteDance Says Ex-Worker Can't Avoid Counterclaims

    TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, says a former engineer shouldn't be able to dodge its counterclaims in a dispute stemming from his termination, arguing that just because he wants to drop his allegations doesn't mean those counterclaims are moot.

  • December 02, 2024

    GoodRx Inks $25M Deal With Users Over Alleged Data-Sharing

    A proposed class alleging GoodRx breached privacy laws by sharing users' sensitive health data with advertisers asked a California federal judge Friday for preliminary approval of a proposed $25 million settlement with the company, saying it still leaves the potential for additional recoveries from co-defendants Meta Platforms, Google and Criteo Corp.

  • December 02, 2024

    X Escapes Former Twitter Security Head's Firing Suit

    A New Jersey federal judge has sent a former Twitter security chief's suit claiming he was fired for protesting massive budget cuts to arbitration, ruling that the claims fail under the provisions of the company's arbitration agreement.

  • December 02, 2024

    Musk Asks Court To Halt OpenAI's Conversion To For-Profit

    Elon Musk sought a preliminary injunction asking a California federal court to stop OpenAI from transitioning into a for-profit enterprise, arguing the plaintiffs and the public would be harmed whether as competitors, donors, investors, consumers, taxpayers, citizens or "simply as people" worried about AI rushing unsafe products into the marketplace.  

  • November 27, 2024

    Google Wants 9th Circ. To Undo Play Store Ruling In Epic Row

    Google has pressed the Ninth Circuit to reverse an injunction forcing it to allow third-party app distribution on its Play Store, arguing that the lower court's ruling will "directly undercut Google's efforts to compete against Apple and the iPhone."

  • November 27, 2024

    Prudential Website Visitors Get Class Cert. In Tracking Row

    A California federal judge has certified a class of life insurance quote seekers who are accusing Prudential Financial Inc. and its software vendor of illegally recording their keystrokes and information, finding that questions about website visitors' knowledge of this practice can be resolved on a classwide basis. 

  • November 27, 2024

    X Corp Says Gov't Trying To 'Muzzle' Doc In Bitter HIPAA Case

    X Corp has told a Texas federal judge that government prosecutors were trying to "muzzle" a doctor accused of sharing protected patient information while talking to the press about a hospital's gender-affirming care practices, saying the government was out of line.

  • November 27, 2024

    $83M Air Force Award Must Account For Merger, GAO Says

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office says the Air Force must reconsider its award of an $83 million task order, saying the veteran-owned small business protesting the award possessed the requisite certification following a merger.

  • November 27, 2024

    Zoom Offers SEC $18M To Settle 2020 Privacy Probe

    Zoom Communications disclosed in a U.S. Securities Exchange and Commission filing that it has offered $18 million to settle an agency investigation into "various security, data protection and privacy matters," including the videoconferencing platform's encryption.

  • November 27, 2024

    Amazon Judge Says Appeal Too Soon In Ongoing Privacy Suit

    A Washington federal judge has said he won't issue a final judgment to allow consumers to appeal his previous ruling tossing most of the claims in a suit alleging that palm scanners at joint Starbucks-Amazon stores violate biometric privacy law, because one of the plaintiffs has a remaining claim.

  • November 27, 2024

    Arkansas Can't Bring Suit Against Crypto Miner For Now

    An Arkansas federal judge has temporarily barred state officials from taking action against a Chinese-born U.S. citizen's crypto mining operation after he challenged the investigation against him and the laws underpinning it as discriminatory and unconstitutional.

  • November 27, 2024

    Fintech Co. Ingo, Consumers Reach Deal To End Breach Suit

    Fintech deposit underwriter Ingo Money Inc. has reached a handshake deal to settle proposed class action claims that for seven months it sat on news that hackers had gotten hold of a "gold mine" of customers' personal information.

  • November 27, 2024

    Burger King Franchisee Can Tap AIG For BIPA Suit, Eventually

    An Illinois federal judge ruled Tuesday that an AIG subsidiary has a duty to defend a Burger King franchisee in a suit brought by employees claiming its timekeeping practices violated Illinois' biometric privacy law, but only after the limits of all other insurance have been exhausted.

  • November 27, 2024

    5th Circ. Reverses Treasury's Block Of Crypto Mixer

    The Fifth Circuit has rejected the government's blacklisting of Tornado Cash for "its role in laundering virtual currency for malicious cyber actors," saying the cryptocurrency service's immutable smart contracts, or lines of privacy-enabling software code, are not "property" and are therefore unownable and cannot be blocked under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

  • November 27, 2024

    Data Cos. Lose Challenge To NJ Judicial Privacy Law

    A federal judge has ruled that the New Jersey judicial privacy and security measure known as Daniel's Law is constitutional, handing a defeat to a large group of data brokers accused of illegally posting judges' names and addresses online.

  • November 27, 2024

    Better, Faster, Stranger: What Attys Think Of Our AI Future

    Law firms are increasingly embracing the use of artificial intelligence, wary of its limitations but enchanted by its potential to transform the practice of law through smaller headcounts and cheaper litigation.

  • November 26, 2024

    Sundance Can't Ditch Suit Over Purchase Data Disclosures

    A Utah federal judge has refused to toss a proposed class action accusing specialty retailer Sundance of unlawfully sharing its customers' private information with various third parties, finding that a ban on class actions contained in the state law being relied on by the plaintiffs didn't doom the dispute. 

  • November 26, 2024

    X Partially Revives Lawsuit Against Israeli Data Scraping Firm

    X Corp. partially revived its lawsuit Tuesday against Israeli data scraping firm Bright Data after a California federal judge allowed the social media company to amend some of its claims and add new ones, finding X now plausibly alleges the defendant's "sophisticated efforts" to access the platform caused harm.

  • November 26, 2024

    Truepill's $7.5M Patent Data Theft Settlement Gets Initial OK

    A California federal judge Tuesday preliminarily backed a $7.5 million deal resolving a proposed class action alleging that online pharmacy PostMeds Inc., which does business as Truepill, failed to protect the sensitive information of millions of patients from a data breach.

Expert Analysis

  • Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.

  • What We Know From Early Cyberinsurance Rulings

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    Recent cyber disruption incidents, like the Crowdstrike outage and the CDK Global cyberattack this summer, highlight the necessity of understanding legal interpretations of cyberinsurance coverage — an area in which there has been little litigation thus far, say Peter Halprin and Rebecca Schwarz at Haynes Boone.

  • 5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond

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    As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.

  • Series

    Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer

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    My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.

  • Until Congress Acts, EDNY 'Insider Betting' Case Is Premature

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    The Eastern District of New York’s novel wire fraud conspiracy indictment in U.S. v. Pham may have prematurely heralded a new era in federal gambling enforcement, but in the absence of an “insider betting” statute, sportsbooks — not prosecutors — should be responsible for enforcing their terms of use, says attorney Jonathan Savella.

  • How Law Firms Can Avoid 'Collaboration Drag'

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    Law firm decision making can be stifled by “collaboration drag” — characterized by too many pointless meetings, too much peer feedback and too little dissent — but a few strategies can help stakeholders improve decision-making processes and build consensus, says Steve Groom at Miles Mediation.

  • Election Outlook: A Precedent Primer On Content Moderation

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    With the 2024 election season now in full swing, online platforms will face difficult and politically sensitive decisions about content moderation, but U.S. Supreme Court decisions from last term offer much-needed certainty about their rights, say Jonathan Blavin and Helen White at Munger Tolles.

  • What BIPA Reform Law Means For Biometrics Litigation

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    A recently signed Illinois law amending the Biometric Information Privacy Act limits defendants' liability exposure on a per-scan basis and clarifies that electronic signatures constitute a valid written release, establishing additional issues that courts will need to address in future BIPA litigation, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • 6 Considerations To Determine If A Cyber Incident Is Material

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent guidance on material cybersecurity incidents covers a range of ransomware scenarios, from a company paying a sum and regaining operations to recovering payment via cyberinsurance, but makes it clear that no single factor determines whether a cybersecurity incident is material, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Opinion

    Litigation Funding Disclosure Key To Open, Impartial Process

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    Blanket investor and funding agreement disclosures should be required in all civil cases where the investor has a financial interest in the outcome in order to address issues ranging from potential conflicts of interest to national security concerns, says Bob Goodlatte, former U.S. House Representative for Virginia.

  • Series

    After Chevron: What To Expect In Consumer Protection At FTC

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    Although the Federal Trade Commission's bread-and-butter consumer protection law enforcement actions are unlikely to be affected, the Loper Bright decision may curb the FTC's bolder interpretations of the statutes it enforces, says Mary Engle at BBB National Programs.

  • The Ethics of Using Generative AI In Environmental Law

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    The rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools is challenging environmental lawyers, consultants and government agencies to determine when and how these tools can be responsibly, ethically and productively integrated into their practices to streamline research, predictive analytics and regulatory compliance, say Ahlia Bethea and Pamela Esterman at Sive Paget.

  • RealPage Suit Shows Growing Algorithm, AI Pricing Scrutiny

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's suit against RealPage for helping fix rental rates, filed last week, demonstrates how the use of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools to assist with pricing decisions is drawing increasing scrutiny and action across government agencies, and specifically at the Federal Trade Commission and the DOJ, say Andre Geverola and Leah Harrell at Arnold & Porter.

  • What NFL Draft Picks Have In Common With Lateral Law Hires

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    Nearly half of law firm lateral hires leave within a few years — a failure rate that is strikingly similar to the performance of NFL quarterbacks drafted in the first round — in part because evaluators focus too heavily on quantifiable metrics and not enough on a prospect's character traits, says Howard Rosenberg at Baretz+Brunelle.

  • CrowdStrike Incident Highlights Third-Party Risk For Banks

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    The global business disruptions caused by CrowdStrike's faulty software update last month serves as a reminder that banks should assess operational and compliance risks associated with third-party service providers and create resiliency plans extending down to fourth- and fifth-level providers, says Craig Landrum at Jones Walker.

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