Month: June 2019

Internet Governance

Disclosing Profit Gained From User Data: A bipartisan team of senators has introduced the Dashboard Act, a bill that would require technology companies with more than 100 million monthly users to disclose the types of data being collected from consumers and the revenue gained from its monetization; the bill has attracted attention because it proposes an obligation for social media companies to inform users of how much revenue their data provides from their use of “free” social media services.

Privacy

Healthcare Partnership Faces HIPAA Suit: Google and the University of Chicago Medical Center, which collaborate to use artificial intelligence to predict patients’ future medical events, face a lawsuit in Illinois federal court alleging that the hospital’s sharing of certain medical records, along with Google’s ability to personally identify patients, violate HIPAA patient privacy standards.

Information Security & Cyberthreats

Florida City Pays Bitcoin Ransom After Cyber Attack: Lake City, Florida, voted in an emergency city council meeting to pay hackers a ransom demand of 42 bitcoins worth nearly $500,000; Riviera City, Florida, suffered from a similar ransomware attack one week earlier and similarly agreed to pay 65 bitcoins valued at $600,000.

Telecom Companies Fall Victim To “Operation Soft Cell”: In a large-scale cyberattack now spanning over seven years, hackers have stolen sensitive data from more than a dozen major mobile carriers; the data theft operation, which is believed to be state-sponsored, has penetrated mobile carriers in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East by breaching networks and potentially enabling access to the data of millions of customers.

Intellectual Property

Supreme Court Declines To Hear Digital First Sale Doctrine Case: The justices denied a petition of certiorari from now-shuttered online music service ReDigi Inc. in a case concerning consumers’ ability to resell digital copies of music and other works without violating copyright law; ReDigi aimed to let users resell MP3s by employing technology that purportedly allowed only a single copy of a song file to exist at any one time, but previous copyright infringement lawsuits against ReDigi held that the digital version of the first sale doctrine did not apply because ReDigi technically created new copies of works for the online marketplace.

Free Expression & Censorship

Facebook Agrees To Share Identification Data Of Hate Speech Suspects With French Authorities: Facebook has agreed with French authorities that it will provide identity data on users suspected of engaging in hate speech; while Facebook has previously taken the position that it was not legally obliged to provide such data, the company agreed to the arrangement after engaging in ongoing dialogue with the French administration.

Practice Note

USPTO Partners Up To Streamline International Patent Applications: For the second year, the USPTO’s Collaborative Patent Cooperation Treaty Collaborative Search and Examination pilot program will hold a second round of applications in which patent examiners from the U.S., Europe, Japan, Korea, and China collaborate to process applications.

On the Lighter Side

Audio Surveillance Fail: A recent report reveals that an “aggression detector” audio surveillance system installed by some schools confuses laughter for aggressive behavior.

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

Tom Norton
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Robert Chislett
Alison Gordon
Editorial Fellows

Internet Governance

Senate Calls Facebook To Testify About Cryptocurrency: In response to the expected 2020 release of Facebook’s Libra, a blockchain-enabled global cryptocurrency project, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee has scheduled a hearing to gather information about the project and to assess potential data privacy and consumer concerns; European regulators are also calling for scrutiny of the planned financial system, while Facebook has claimed that the project will provide financial inclusion to unbanked populations in developing countries.

Privacy

YouTube Under Investigation For Potential Violations Of Children’s Privacy Laws: After complaints by parent and consumer advocacy groups that YouTube collected data from children under 13 without parental consent and made inappropriate search engine recommendations, the F.T.C. is investigating whether the video-streaming platform has violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

Georgia Supreme Court Addresses Car Data Privacy: The Georgia Supreme Court will determine whether a Georgia man’s reckless driving conviction should be reversed on the basis that law enforcement’s collection of data from his vehicle’s “black box” at the time of the crash required a warrant.

Information Security & Cyberthreats

Database Of Medical Information Left Exposed By Marketing Company: An online marketing company that helps law firms generate leads from prospective personal injury claimants maintained an unsecured database of nearly 150,000 records containing private health and financial information submitted by potential clients; the database was taken down after researchers discovered the vulnerability.

Intellectual Property

Movie Sanitizing Service Is Liable For Copyright Damages: A jury determined that movie streaming service VidAngel, which ripped movies from DVD copies, scrubbed them of sex, violence, or similar content, and then streamed sanitized versions for a family audience, must pay $62 million in damages to Warner Brothers, Disney, and Twentieth Century Fox for copyright infringement.

Free Expression & Censorship

Twitch Sues Anonymous Users For Uploading Objectionable Content: The live-streaming platform is suing 100 anonymous users for allegedly violating its terms of service by uploading content such as video footage of the Christchurch mosque shootings and hardcore pornography; Twitch seeks to identify the individuals involved, ban them from its service, and obtain damages for the losses it incurred as a result of the objectionable content.

Practice Note

Email Services Not Subject To European Telecommunications Regulations: The European Court of Justice has ruled that email services such as Gmail are not “electronic communications services” and therefore not subject to strict EU telecom privacy obligations; the Court distinguished a recent ruling that Skype’s voice-over IP function qualifies as an “electronic communications service” on the basis that Google—unlike Skype, which contracts with telecoms to deliver calls—merely uploads and receives data and does not provide a means of transmitting messages for the purposes of telecom regulation. 

On the Lighter Side

Cat Filter Enhances Pakistani Media Conference: Cat ears and whiskers were “accidentally” applied to the face of Pakistan’s Provincial Information Minister during livestream coverage of a media conference.

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

Tom Norton
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Robert Chislett
Alison Gordon
Editorial Fellows

Internet Governance

G20 Drafts Digital Tax Rules For Global Tech Giants: In response to corporate tax loopholes that allow multinational technology firms to funnel sales through low-tax jurisdictions, G20 finance ministers have released an official statement agreeing to establish common rules that would create a global digital tax regime; the United States has expressed concern that the efforts unfairly target U.S.-based internet companies.

Privacy

Maine Enacts Online Privacy Law To Protect Consumer Data: The Act to Protect the Privacy of Online Consumer Information, now one of the country’s strongest privacy laws, requires ISPs to obtain explicit consent from consumers before selling their data and prohibits ISPs from refusing service or offering discounts to coerce consumers into consenting.

Amazon Faces Class Actions For Recording Children’s Voices: A proposed federal class action and a similar suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court allege that Amazon’s Alexa records and “voiceprints” the voices of children who use the device without first obtaining consent, in violation of eight states’ recording laws; the suits claim that Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices are capable of distinguishing registered users’ voices from other voices, but that Amazon has neglected to take measures to limit the recording and storage of nonuser dialogue.

Information Security & Cyberthreats

Cyberattack On U.S. Customs And Border Protection Compromises Traveler Photos: Hackers obtained photos of travelers’ faces and license plates from a federal subcontractor, which was using the data to improve facial recognition technology designed to identify vehicle occupants; the breach highlights the potential conflicts between federal surveillance practices and the privacy interests of Americans.

Intellectual Property

Investment Management Computer Program Too Abstract To Qualify For Patent Protection: The Federal Circuit affirmed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s decision to reject a patent application for an investment management program that relies on standard computer procedures; the court agreed that the application did not meet the test set out in Alice v. CLS Bank because it did not propose an inventive concept, but rather merely automated the allocation of investment returns within a common fund.

Free Expression & Censorship

France Criminalizes Publication Of Judicial Data Analytics: The French government has banned the publication of data analysis of judicial decision-making, including patterns of judicial decisions used by legal tech companies to predict litigation outcomes; violation of the ban is now a criminal offense punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment.

Practice Note

Search Engines Held Not Liable For Map Results Derived From Fake Third Party Content: The D.C. Circuit affirmed dismissal of a claim against Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft concerning the alleged manipulation of online map results by sham companies; the court agreed that the Communications Decency Act shielded the search engines from liability for the search results that were generated by neutral algorithms.

On the Lighter Side

Google Maps Tests New “Off-Route” Feature For Taxi Rides: The new feature alerts taxi passengers if their driver diverts from the fastest route.

Joel R. Reidenberg

Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of LawFounding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP

Tom Norton
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Robert Chislett
Alison Gordon
Editorial Fellows

Internet Governance

House Judiciary Subcommittee Pushes Antitrust Investigation Of Tech Industry: Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google will be called to testify as part of a wide-ranging probe over the tech industry’s perceived concentration and misuse of market power and the resulting impact on local journalism, consumer privacy, and market entry for startups; the hearing is being conducted in addition to three separate antitrust inquiries simultaneously pursued by the executive branch, the Justice Department, and the F.T.C.

PrivacyS

New York Privacy Act Receives Pushback From Big Tech: A bill recently introduced by New York State senator Kevin Thomas that would create a private right of action and would require online businesses to act as “data fiduciaries” would become one of the strongest privacy laws in the country if passed.

Information Security & Cyberthreats

EU Embassy In Moscow Falls Victim To Multi-Year Cyber Attack: A leaked internal document reveals that the EU Embassy in Moscow was compromised by sophisticated cyber-attacks to its unclassified network as early as February 2017; the European External Action Service, the EU’s foreign and security policy agency, did not discover the attack until this April, shortly before the EU Parliament elections.

Intellectual Property

Uber Faces Patent Infringement Claim: A former Georgia Institute of Technology professor is suing the company for allegedly infringing his 2004 patent over a system that combines cellphones, GPS, and auto-billing technology to facilitate ridesharing; the former professor also sued Lyft last July for infringement of the same patent.

Free Expression & CensorshipS

EU Court Signals That Facebook May Be Required To Remove Content Worldwide: The European Court of Justice’s legal adviser issued an advisory opinion indicating that Facebook could be ordered to remove content that is identical or “equivalent” to content that is hateful, defamatory, or otherwise illegal; Facebook argues that the opinion, if followed, would have far-reaching implications for how states maintain sovereignty and uphold freedom of expression.

CNN And Reuters Fall Victim To Chinese Government Censorship: Upon the 30th anniversary of Beijing’s pro-democracy uprising and subsequent Tiananmen Square massacre, the Cyberspace Administration of China has blocked CNN and has pressured the financial information firm Refinitiv to block Thomson Reuters stories from its Eikon news software; the Chinese government has also denied visas to journalists who have published articles critical of the nation’s leadership.

Practice Note

D.C. Court Allows Privacy Case Against Facebook To Proceed: In a suit stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the D.C. Superior Court rejected Facebook’s argument that the court lacked jurisdiction over the company, as well as its alternative argument that the action should be stayed pending resolution of the F.T.C.’s investigation of the company and a separate class-action; the ruling allows the D.C. Attorney General to begin obtaining evidence that Facebook has violated the District’s consumer-protection and privacy laws.

On the Lighter Side

Teens’ Use Of AirDrop Confuses Unsuspecting Adults: Adults are increasingly getting caught in the crossfire of teenagers’ use of Apple’s AirDrop feature.

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

Tom Norton
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Robert Chislett
Alison Gordon
Editorial Fellows