Internet Governance
Privacy Shield Impasse: The European Commission’s Article 29 Working Party refused to endorse the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield on the basis that the scheme lacks clarity, does not properly limit how American agencies conduct the collection of personal information for national security purposes, and that the prescribed ombudsperson lacks sufficient independence and power to conduct its duty.
Privacy
ECPA Reform? The Email Privacy Act, which would require law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant in order to access email and other digital communication older than 180 days, was unanimously approved by the House Judiciary Committee and will soon go up for a full House vote.
Sharing About Ride Sharing: Uber released its first ever transparency report, which details the requests and court orders the company has received from the government and describes the extent of Uber’s compliance.
Information Security And Cyberthreats
Apple-FBI Battle Continues: Recently unsealed court documents reveal that a Boston federal magistrate judge granted the FBI’s order to compel Apple to provide “reasonable technical assistance” in decrypting an iPhone related to a Boston gang case.
Congress Enters The Fight: A draft encryption bill proposed by two senators would require companies to comply with court orders to decrypt device data in criminal cases involving serious injury, drugs, or child victims, and in national security cases; critics of the bill argue that it may have serious security and privacy implications for manufacturers and users.
Intellectual Property
Link Swapping Not Illegal: The Advocate General for the Court of Justice of the European Union opined in a Dutch case that a blog link to a collection of unauthorized Playboy photos did not give rise to a copyright infringement claim because while the link facilitated the discovery of the copyrighted works, linking is not equivalent to making the works available to the general public.
Practice Note
Diminished Expectation of Privacy: The Sixth Circuit held that the FBI’s warrantless collection of cell-site data was not an unlawful search on the grounds that the agency obtained the information through third-party business records.
On The Lighter Side
Rorschach-ing Emojis: It turns out we’re not all on the same page when it comes to interpretation.
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