Month: March 2022

Internet Governance D.C. Sues Grubhub for Deceptive Business Practices: The District’s Attorney General claims that the food delivery app inflates restaurant prices without being transparent to users and adds restaurants to its service without their permission. In a statement, GrubHub said that the practices at issue are either “appropriately disclosed” or discontinued.

Privacy Minnesota Police Used App to Collect Data on Journalists: Police officers in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, singled out journalists during a protest in April 2021 and took photos of each of them, which were shared on an app that attached geolocation data to the images. Although none of the journalists were accused of crimes, their images are now available on at least one data repository accessible to multiple government agencies at both federal and state levels.

Information Security and Cyberthreats Microsoft, Okta, Confirm Breaches by Hacking Group: Microsoft and digital identity management group Okta both confirmed that they were breached by South American hacking group Lapsus$. The hackers posted a file online on Monday that contained partial source code to Bing, Bing Maps, and Cortana.  Biden Urges Private Sector to Prepare for Russian Cyberattacks: While the U.S. government has no evidence of a specific potential cyberattack, President Biden warned that his administration has observed “preparatory activity” toward a possible cyberattack on U.S. infrastructure in retaliation for the sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

Freedom of Expression and Censorship As Russia Bans Facebook and Instagram, WhatsApp Remains: A Moscow court’s ruling on Monday that Meta is carrying out “extremist activities” purposefully allowed Meta’s messaging app WhatsApp to continue operating in the country. While the court claimed that its decision was “due to [WhatsApp’s] lack of functionality for the public dissemination of information,” some believe the move was an attempt to avoid alienating Russian citizens.

Practice Note Mercedes Will Accept Legal Liability for Accidents Caused by its Autopilot Feature: Partially in an attempt to gain approval from U.S. state regulators, Mercedes will accept legal responsibility for its vehicles when its self-driving Drive Pilot mode is active. Already approved for use in Germany, Drive Pilot can be activated on certain highways when the car is traveling less than 40 miles per hour.

On the Lighter Side Tech Start-Up Aims to Preserve Culture Through AI: Intelligent Voices of Wisdom helps underrepresented groups, such as Native Americans, create data that will be used to train AI to better understand their cultures.

If you enjoy reading CLIP-ings, please consider making a contribution to Fordham CLIP. Your support provides crucial funding at a time when the study of information law and policy is more important than ever.

Ron Lazebnik Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP Elyssa Diamond Editorial Fellow

Internet Governance Ukraine Legalizes Cryptocurrency: Under the new law, both Ukrainian and foreign crypto exchanges will be allowed to operate in the country, subject to regulation by Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission. The new law highlights the impact of cryptocurrencies on the country’s response to the Russian invasion–Ukraine has received over $63 million worth of crypto donations that it will use to aid its defense and humanitarian efforts.

Privacy Irish Data Protection Commission Fines Meta for Breach-related Recordkeeping Violations Under GDPR: Following an investigation into twelve 2018 data breaches that affected over 30 million users, the Commission fined the company €17 million for “fail[ing] to have in place appropriate technical and organisational measures which would enable it to readily demonstrate the security measures that it implemented in practice to protect EU users’ data.”

Information Security and Cyberthreats Russia-Ukraine Conflict Creates Schism Among Hacking Groups: A new report by Accenture’s Cyber Threat Intelligence team finds that for what seems to be the first time, cybercriminals are “divided along ideological factions” and selecting targets depending on whether they support Russian or Ukraine. Pro-Russian groups are increasingly targeting perceived “enemies of Russia,” including Western financial entities and infrastructure.

Intellectual Property Wordle Archive Goes Offline: The site, which let users play prior games of the popular word puzzle, was taken down at the request of Wordle-owner The New York Times.

Freedom of Expression and Censorship Russia Blocks Instagram: The country’s censorship body implemented the block after Meta temporarily adjusted its content policies to permit postings calling for violence against Russian soldiers from within Ukraine as a way to “[protect] people’s rights to speech as an expression of self-defense.” Facebook and YouTube Remove Zelensky Deepfake: The platforms have removed postings of a fake video of the Ukrainian President purportedly ceding to Russia and calling for Ukrainian troops to lay down their arms. Twitter is monitoring the spread of the video on its platform, and is taking “enforcement action” in instances where the video violates company policies.

On the Lighter Side Smart Shirts: An in-development “acoustic fabric” that can detect and produce soundwaves has promising potential uses ranging from detecting an individual’s heart rate to monitoring the build-up of space dust on spacecraft.

If you enjoy reading CLIP-ings, please consider making a contribution to Fordham CLIP. Your support provides crucial funding at a time when the study of information law and policy is more important than ever.

Ron Lazebnik Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Internet Governance House Judiciary Committee Alleges Amazon Lied to Congress About Use of Third-Party Seller Data: In prior testimony, Amazon senior executives said that the company did not use data collected from third-party sellers to compete with them, but multiple reports found that Amazon employees routinely and openly did just that. In a letter to the Department of Justice, the House Judiciary Committee has called on prosecutors to investigate the tech giant for criminal obstruction of Congress.

Privacy FTC Says Weight Watchers App Collected Data from Children: WW International, the company formerly known as Weight Watchers, allegedly used an app to collect personal information from children without their parents’ consent in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The weight loss company will pay a $1.5 million penalty as part of a settlement with the FTC and has agreed to erase the algorithms it developed from the data.

Information Security and Cyberthreats Ukraine, Others Faced Cyberattacks up to Two Weeks Before Russian Invasion: Cybersecurity organizations such as Google’s Threat Analysis Group said that they uncovered cyberattacks targeting Ukrainian officials, the Polish military, and U.S. firms that supply natural gas up to two weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.

Intellectual Property LimeWire to Relaunch as NFT Marketplace: Peer-to-peer filesharing site LimeWire will relaunch in May as a marketplace for trading NFTs. LimeWire shut down in 2010 after a federal judge found that it facilitated large-scale copyright infringement.

Freedom of Expression and Censorship Russia Blocks Facebook as War in Ukraine Rages On: As many western tech platforms halt their operations in Russia, the Russian government has blocked Facebook from its internet. This came in conjunction with a new law in Russia that makes it a crime to share “fake” information about the invasion of Ukraine.

Practice Note Shareholder Lawsuit Against Alphabet Inc. May Proceed: The Supreme Court declined to hear Alphabet’s attempt to throw out a lawsuit by shareholders accusing Google’s parent company of fraudulently concealing a security glitch in the company’s now-defunct social media platform Google+.

On the Lighter Side AI Tool Helps Historians Restore Ancient Text: A team of computer scientists and classics experts based in Italy trained an AI tool to restore texts written in ancient Greek, as well as estimate when they were written and from where they may have originated.

If you enjoy reading CLIP-ings, please consider making a contribution to Fordham CLIP. Your support provides crucial funding at a time when the study of information law and policy is more important than ever.

Ron Lazebnik Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP Elyssa Diamond Editorial Fellow

Internet Governance Disability Orgs Call on DOJ to Finalize Online Accessibility Rules: While the DOJ has held that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to websites and other tech, the Department has never defined what technological compliance looks like. The American Council of the Blind, the National Disability Rights Network, the National Federation of the Blind, and more than 170 other organizations are calling on the DOJ to complete a rulemaking process that it began in 2010 to answer these pressing questions about ADA compliance online.

Privacy Biden Calls for New Laws to Protect Child Safety Online: During his first State of the Union address, President Biden called on Congress to implement new laws that would protect child safety on social media platforms. In addition, the administration plans to ask for funding to study child safety on social media, as well as social media’s impact on mental health.

Information Security and Cyberthreats Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Leads to Public-Private Partnerships in U.S. Cybersecurity: United States companies including Microsoft are aiding Ukraine’s defense by identifying and countering cyberattacks launched by Russia, both on their own and in conjunction with government organizations such as the National Security Agency, the United States Cyber Command, and British authorities.

Intellectual Property Non-Alcoholic Spirit Maker Engages in Trademark Warfare: The founder of a non-alcoholic spirit brand has been accused of orchestrating an elaborate sabotage scheme in which he registers trademarks, buys website domains, and publishes press releases to discredit competitors and stir confusion among consumers.

Freedom of Expression and Censorship Big Tech Pulls Russian State-Backed Media from Platforms: Spotify and other sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok have pulled Kremlin-linked outlets RT and Sputnik from their platform as misinformation about the Russian invasion of Ukraine spreads.

Practice Note U.S. and EU Close to Replacing Privacy Shield: Since the European Court of Justice struck down the U.S.-EU data-sharing arrangement in 2020, leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have been eager to find its replacement. Officials representing both the United States and the Europe Union announced at the State of the Net conference in Washington, D.C. that they are close to a new solution.

On the Lighter Side Ice Cream Machine Savior (or Hacker) Sues McDonald’s: A start-up that created a device designed to fix the fast-food giant’s notoriously broken ice cream machines alleges that McDonald’s engaged in anticompetitive conduct by sending an email to franchisees warning them not to use the product.

If you enjoy reading CLIP-ings, please consider making a contribution to Fordham CLIP. Your support provides crucial funding at a time when the study of information law and policy is more important than ever.

Ron Lazebnik Academic Director, Fordham CLIP Tom Norton Executive Director, Fordham CLIP Elyssa Diamond Editorial Fellow