In the second and third week of June, the municipalities of Lake City, and Riviera Beach, Fla., agreed to pay a combined total of over $1 million to cyber criminals claiming responsibility for shutting down municipal computer systems necessary to the operation of crucial municipal functions. The Riviera Beach attack was traced to an email …
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This past week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted to approve a record-breaking $5 billion settlement with Facebook, resolving its investigation into the charge that the company violated a prior settlement with the Commission when it improperly permitted political data firm Cambridge Analytica to access 87 million users’ personal information. Cambridge Analytica created personality quiz …
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A plethora of federal laws address the proliferation of technology-enabled automated communications in a variety of areas, including finance, commerce, credit, and health. Although the general objective is to address individual privacy and data security concerns, each law contains distinct goals, technical requirements, and remedies if violated. One issue that continues to evolve is whether …
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It goes without saying that cybercrime is a growing concern. In April, the FBI released its annual IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) Report, which showed that the FBI received over 350,000 cyber-crime complaints in 2018, with total losses of over $2.7 billion. One common type of cyber crime is spoofing, which is the cyber version …
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Several weeks ago, in Frank v. Gaos, No. 17-961 (U.S. March 20, 2019), the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that upheld a settlement of class action claims against Google for alleged violations of the Stored Communications Act (SCA). The Supreme Court initially had agreed …
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On March 15, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its 2018 Privacy and Data Security Update, which reported on the agency’s enforcement activities for that calendar year. As the United States’ primary consumer protection agency, the FTC has authority to enforce a variety laws directly related to privacy and data security, including the Truth in …
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On February 29, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission announced that the video social networking app Musical.ly, now known as TikTok, agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle a claim that the company illegally collected personal information from children, the largest such civil penalty to date. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires websites and …
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The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which passed in 2018 and goes into effect January 1, 2020, is intended to provide some of the most rigorous privacy protections to California residents but is not limited in application to California companies. What entities fall under the CCPA? The CCPA applies to ”businesses” that are for-profit entities …
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The image of the Internet as an unregulated Wild West, untouched by government action, is one that some find attractive. But it is not accurate, as illustrated by a number of important actions taken in recent weeks by the New York State Attorney General’s office, including one it took in conjunction with representatives of dozens …
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Waymo – the self-driving technology subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet Inc., – launched a self-driving taxi service in Phoenix at the end of 2018. As companies continue to speed into the autonomous vehicles space, the birth of this industry is raising unprecedented issues. Policy-makers, insurers, automobile manufacturers, employers, and others are encouraged to begin considering …
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