Internet Governance
#Risky: The FDA required Kim Kardashian to remove from Instagram a post promoting a morning sickness drug on the ground that her failure to disclose the drug’s risks resulted in a “false and misleading” advertisement.
Scammers On Trial: The FTC charged two data brokers for illegally selling consumer loan application data, including social security and account numbers, to a third party who used the information to charge consumer accounts $7 million in unauthorized transactions.
Privacy
Encryption Tug-Of-War: In the ongoing dispute between the government and businesses over data encryption, the DOJ has asserted that service providers already maintain some access to user information for business purposes and that the same access should be extended to law enforcement.
Information Security And Cyberthreats
Pressed With Fraud: The SEC charged a “hacking ring” that allegedly stole over five years of not-yet-public press releases and used the information contained therein to predict and profit from changes in stock performance.
Intellectual Property
Battle Of The Alpha-Brands: BMW is assessing whether Alphabet, Google’s new parent company, infringes BMW’s trademark for a subsidiary of the same name; a dispute is unlikely because Google does not intend for the company to manufacture products.
Free Expression And Censorship
Voters Say Cheese: A New Hampshire court struck a state bill banning voters’ ballot selfies, which was enacted to prevent vote-buying schemes, as a “content-based restriction on speech.”
Practice Note
Social Network Expert: In a case about whether a man’s Facebook posts amounted to threats, an Indiana District Court has allowed expert testimony from a professor whose extensive research on the site’s users “qualifies her to opine on [their] general behavioral patterns.”
On The Lighter Side
Privacy? Priceless: A $240 pair of shades can protect your face from those harmful facial recognition rays.
Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Fordham CLIP
N. Cameron Russell
Executive Director, Fordham CLIP
Thomas B. Norton
Privacy Fellow, Fordham CLIP
Editorial Fellows
Elle Davis
Sam Borenzweig