Month: February 2019

Internet Governance

Uber Sues NYC Over Ride-Hail Cap: Uber filed a lawsuit to overturn NYC’s law that paused the issuance of new licenses to drivers for 12 months and capped the number of ride-hail drivers that can operate in the City; Uber argues that the law, which is part of the New York City Council’s efforts to give regulators more control over app-based rideshare companies, espouses a “ban first, study later” approach.

Privacy

Google Admits Its Error In Not Disclosing Nest’s In-built Mic: After it was revealed that its modular Nest Secure security system contained a previously undisclosed microphone, Google claimed that the component “was never intended to be a secret” and acknowledged that it should have been listed in the product’s technical specifications; Google says that the mic was included in the Nest for features that require security systems to pick up sounds, such as broken glass.

Information Security & Cyberthreats

Etsy Error Causes Unauthorized Withdrawals From Sellers’ Bank Accounts: Following an Etsy bill payment error, large sums of money were withdrawn from sellers’ bank accounts and charged to their credit cards; Etsy says that the mishap was “related to a site change” and “was not a fraud issue,” and that all incorrect withdrawals have been refunded and the issue has been fixed.

Venezuelan Government Attempts To Hack Activists: The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is allegedly using phishing sites to trick pro-opposition activists into revealing their passwords to popular web services such as Facebook, Gmail, Instagram, and Twitter in a purported effort to identify and stop the activists.

Intellectual Property

What’s The Frequency, Donald? Twitter removed a video that President Trump tweeted in retort to the Democrats’ reaction to the State of the Union that included the song “Everybody Hurts” by rock band R.E.M. after the band and its publisher submitted a takedown request.

Free Expression and Censorship

Twitter Bug Reveals Deleted Messages: A security researcher discovered that a “functional bug” allows for the recovery of Twitter users’ direct messages after the messages—or even the account—have been deleted; this seems to contradict Twitter’s data retention policies and implicates the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.

Advertisers Boycott YouTube: Major brands such as Nestlé and Epic Games are boycotting advertising on YouTube because their ads appeared on innocent videos featuring minors that have become the target of pedophiles, who have “infiltrated” the videos’ comment sections; this comes after YouTube recently convinced advertisers who had left the platform over concerns about other offensive content to return by assuring them that its ability to flag questionable content had advanced.

On The Lighter Side

Apple Stays Fresh Past Expiration Date: Fordham Law Professor John Pfaff discovered a thirty-year-old Apple IIe computer in his parents’ attic and resumed where he left off in his save file for the game Adventureland after all these years.

Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP

Tom Norton 
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Praatika Prasad
Quinn Nicholas D’Isa 
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

Trump Signs A.I. Executive Order: President Trump signed an executive order this week to establish an “American A.I. Initiative” after fears of running out of step with foreign countries in the field were promulgated by then-U.S. Defense Secretary Mattis last spring; the initiative is intended to better educate workers and improve the systems needed to develop A.I. technology.

Texas Looks To Prevent Throttling: A bill introduced in the Texas House of Representatives would make it a crime for telecommunications providers to restrict internet access in declared disaster areas; the bill joins over 100 other state-level net neutrality bills and comes after firefighters in Santa Clara County, California, experienced data throttling during the 2018 wildfires there.

Privacy

Federal Privacy Legislation Hearings Scheduled: House and Senate committees are set to hold separate hearings later this month to discuss potential data privacy and security legislation; a Government Accountability Office report that recommends that Congress consider “developing comprehensive legislation on Internet privacy that would enhance consumer protections and provide flexibility to address a rapidly evolving Internet environment” was released concurrently with the hearing announcements.

Information Security & Cyberthreats

I’m Breaching-Up With You: Internet dating application Coffee Meets Bagel announced on Valentine’s Day that users’ personal data had been compromised due to a breach; earlier this week, reports surfaced that dating application OkCupid was dealing with users’ being locked out of their accounts, potentially due to a security breach.

Intellectual Property

EU Agrees On Copyright Directive Article 13: Negotiations have resulted in agreement on the language of the copyright reform directive, which must now be formally confirmed by the European Parliament and the EU Council; the new text includes the controversial Article 13 provision that would require internet platforms to proactively block the upload of copyrighted material.

Free Expression and Censorship

Instagram Bans “Graphic” Self-Harm Images After British Teenager’s Death: Following public outrage over Instagram’s apparent influence in the suicide of 14-year old Molly Russell, Instagram announced that explicit imagery of self-harm would not be allowed on the app and that non-graphic images of self-harm would be removed from the most visible parts of the app.

Practice Note

Facebook Messenger Decryption Efforts Remain Sealed: An Eastern District of California judge ruled that details about a government effort to force Facebook to decrypt Messenger communications as part of an investigation into the MS-13 gang the government’s interests in maintaining its investigation’s secrecy outweighed the public interest in disclosure of the documents.

On The Lighter Side

Moove Over, Tinder: The newly-launched “Tudder” helps farmers find breeding matches for their cattle.

Announcement

Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP

Tom Norton 
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Praatika Prasad
Quinn Nicholas D’Isa 
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance

German Competition Authority Bars Facebook Plan To Streamline Data: Facebook’s move to streamline user data across WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook is being restricted by Germany’s competition authority; Facebook will now have to gain users’ permission before merging data between the applications.

Privacy

European Commission Recalls Smartwatch That Can Track Children: German firm Enox’s Safe-KID-One watch has been recalled by the European Commission because it does not comply with the Radio Equipment Directive and poses serious security risks; the app that accompanies the watch allows for unencrypted communication with its backend server, making it easy to find and change data on location history, phone numbers, and device serial numbers.

Massachusetts Lawmaker Introduces State Consumer Privacy Bill: If passed, the bill would require that businesses provide consumers with notice before collecting their data, give consumers the right to ask businesses to delete their data, allow consumers to restrict third party access to their data, and grant a private right of action to any consumer whose rights are violated—without requiring a showing of monetary or property loss.

Information Security & Cyberthreats

Houston, We Have A Problem: During the recent federal government shutdown, NASA dealt with near continuous cyber threats targeting information about the Administration’s advance technology while nearly 95% of NASA staff was furloughed; after the shutdown, the Department of Homeland Security assed NASA’s security as having no “external-facing, critical issues.

Intellectual Property

Franco-German Compromise Pushes Article 13 Forward: France and Germany reached an agreement about which entities should be bound by Article 13, ending the hiatus on negotiations and pushing the EU’s copyright reform plans into the final stages; under the compromise, services that are publicly available for less than three years, have fewer than 5 million unique monthly visitors, and have less than €10 million in annual turnover are excluded from the Article’s scope.

Free Expression and Censorship

EU Has Reduced Internet Hate Speech: After the EU began cracking down on internet hate speech in 2016 through the implementation of an “opt-in code of conduct,” social media companies are analyzing and removing content flagged as hate speech faster than ever; an EU report states that 89 percent of flagged content is analyzed within 24 hours and 72 percent of the content is ultimately removed.

Practice Note

Florida Appeals Court Limits Peer-To-Peer Cryptocurrency Transactions: A unanimous three-judge panel in Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals overruled a trial judge and ruled that selling cryptocurrency directly to another person constitutes a money transmission and therefore requires registration as a payment instrument seller and money transmitter under Florida law; money transmitter rules have also been at issue in other courts with the growing cryptocurrency and blockchain industries.

On The Lighter Side

Instagram Boyfriends Obsolete: The photo app “SomeOne Very Special” helps users get flattering pictures of themselves without a dedicated Instagram boyfriend behind the camera.

 Announcements

Job and Fellowship Opportunities 

Internet Governance

DOJ Charges Huawei: Following an indictment by a Washington grand jury, the Department of Justice announced charges against the Chinese telecom giant for allegedly obstructing justice, stealing trade secrets from T-Mobile, and lying to banks about non-compliance with U.S. sanctions against Iran; a New York grand jury separately indicted Huawei, a U.S. subsidiary, and an Iranian affiliate for bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.   

Privacy

Apple Disables Group FaceTime In The Wake Of Security Flaw: Apple disabled group FaceTime calls after a bug in the app was found to allow call initiators to hear, and sometimes see, the person they were calling even before the recipient answered; New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called the bug an “egregious breach of privacy.”

Illinois Supreme Court Declines To Limit BIPA: The Illinois Supreme Court found that an individual does not “need to allege some actual injury or adverse effect, beyond violation of [his] rights” to be entitled to seek damages under the State’s Biometric Information Privacy Act; the decision could affect Google and Facebook, who have been accused of violating BIPA by tagging faces in photos without user consent.

Information Security & Cyberthreats

Singapore’s HIV Database Leaked: An HIV-positive U.S. citizen leaked the personal data of 14,200 Singaporeans and foreigners living in Singapore after being deported from the country following a drug-and-fraud-related jail term; the leaker allegedly obtained access to the country’s HIV registry through his doctor-partner, who had access to the registry for his work.

Intellectual Property

FBI Arrests Apple Employee For Attempting To Steal Trade Secrets: An Apple employee is accused of stealing confidential information related to Apple’s self-driving car project; the employee was caught taking photos of the project workspace and had transferred information, including “over two thousand files containing confidential and proprietary Apple material, including manuals, schematics, and diagrams” to personal devices.

Free Expression and Censorship

Google Looks To Overturn NLRB Precedent: Google has urged the National Labor Relations Board to overturn precedent that protects employees from punishment for using workplace email to organize around job-related issues by circulating petitions, planning walkouts, and discussing unionization; in a statement, Google clarifies that it is “not lobbying for changes to any rules,” but rather is simply mounting a legal defense to claims at the NLRB.

Practice Note

Yahoo’s Lack Of Disclosure Leads To Rejected Settlement: A U.S. District Judge denied Yahoo’s proposed settlement in the class action suit brought against it as a result of its failure to report data breaches in 2014 and 2016 on the basis that because the proposal failed to disclose the costs of credit monitoring and settlement administration, and did not disclose the total size of the settlement fund, class members could not assess the settlement’s reasonableness.

On The Lighter Side

Robots Poised To Play A Bigger Role In Everyday Life: From critiquing our ping pong skills to providing an exoskeleton for the disabled, the robots on hand at the CES 2019 convention highlight the future interactions humans and robots may have in the not-too-distant future.

Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP

Tom Norton 
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Praatika Prasad
Quinn Nicholas D’Isa 
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP