CLIP-ings: April 8, 2016

Internet Governance

FCC Privacy Rules: Newly proposed rules would allow consumers to opt-out of letting their Internet service providers use their data to specifically target ads from the ISPs themselves, and opt-in should consumers desire ads directly from third-parties; ISPs argue that the proposed rules would threaten their advertising revenues and overall business models.

Mum’s The Word: The White House declined to give public support to a soon-to-be-proposed federal bill that would afford federal judges “broad authority” to compel tech companies to help the government decrypt encrypted devices.

Privacy

Replacement Data Plan: The Council of the EU will soon formally endorse a new data protection plan, which will then be passed on to the European Parliament for approval.

Information Security And Cyberthreats

WhatsApp Doubles Down: The messaging service adopted full end-to-end encryption to further protect its users’ messages from unauthorized access; given the services’ international footprint, the move further pitts the tech company against federal authorities in the ongoing debate about encryption backdoors.

Intellectual Property

Taker Or Maker? Under draft Chinese antitrust policy guidelines focused on improving core technological infrastructure, some foreign companies could be forced to license their IP to Chinese competitors.

Free Expression And Censorship

Freedom Of The Press? A Canadian court has ordered a Vice News journalist to relinquish to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police all of his online communications related to an interview he conducted with an alleged Canadian-born ISIS member; critics fear that the ruling will have a chilling effect on investigative journalism.

Practice Note

Sharing Confidence: The Missouri Supreme Court suspended a lawyer for failing to disclose to opposing counsel that information the lawyer used in a divorce proceeding was obtained through his client’s unauthorized access of an email account belonging to opposing counsel’s client.

On The Lighter Side

Coffee Sounds: Hipsters love “white noise.”


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

N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP

Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP

Carey McConnell and Idalys Núñez
Editorial Fellows, Fordham CLIP