CLIP-ings

Internet Governance

Limiting Municipal Broadband Expansion: The Sixth Circuit ruled that the FCC could not prevent Tennessee and North Carolina from regulating to restrict municipal broadband expansion beyond existing boundaries, after the FCC voted last year for an order to preempt such state laws.

Connecting Users in India: Google is enabling internet access for millions of people in India by providing free Wi-Fi at train stations, seeking to maximize online users and advertisement visibility, while Facebook is testing services to deliver cheaper internet access to people in India while maintaining stakeholder sustainability.

Privacy

New Privacy Technology: Apple will incorporate differential privacy into its newest mobile operating system, a technology that will track and collect user activity but will add noise to the data before it is transmitted to prevent accumulation of “raw data” that reveals a specific individual’s activity.

Unprecedented Info for PI’s: A company has combined public and nonpublic records of personal information with marketing, demographic, and behavioral data to create a profile on every American adult for private investigators to access; use of this and like databases must comply with US privacy laws and FTC oversight, but the high volume of searches means that private investigation companies are mostly expected to monitor themselves.

Narrowing Down “Periodic” Review: The DC District Court ruled in a redacted order that the FBI should specify a time frame for its “periodic” reviews of NSL gag orders, finding that a three-year review balances the burdens on the FBI against the company’s countervailing interest in “avoiding a lengthy and indefinite nondisclosure bar.”

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Problems for Australian Census:  Australia’s first online national census, containing personal, economic, religious, and social information and requiring Australians to identify themselves, came under a possible cyber attack when the survey website crashed overnight.

Oracle Payment Systems Infiltrated: A Russian cybercrime group hacked Oracle’s Micros division, one of world’s largest point of sale vendor systems used at over 330,000 payment locations; the company said payment card data is encrypted “both at rest and in transit” in the Micros systems and it will be implementing security measures to prevent another attack.

Election System Critical Infrastructure? Following the DNC hack, the Obama administration may classify US election systems as critical infrastructure and increase their cyber protections; however, US response to attacks on the political process may have varying implications for national security.

Intellectual Property

Viral Videos and Copyright: While news programs that show videos of events shot by people using their mobile phones in real time are protected by fair use, “middlemen” who buy the videos immediately after they go viral and then attempt to license them have established a monetary value to the videos, complicating the fair use formula by skewing one of the factors involved, the market of the use.

Free Expression and Censorship

Muffling Deceptive Links: Facebook is altering its rules for displaying outside content, featuring headlines that “withhold or distort information” farther down rather than ordering outside stories by amount of traffic; the company is concerned about the association between the content it links to and its brand as a function of user happiness.

On the Lighter Side

Meme of 2016: Some memes, like that created by K.C. Green and shared by the Republican Party during the DNC, reach beyond pop culture silliness to resonate as cultural commentary.

Internet Governance

Blocking Out Dissent: The Turkish government blocked access to WikiLeaks after the site released approximately 300,000 emails of the ruling party; WikiLeaks stated that it released the data in response to the government suspending and arresting 50,000 people in the last week.

Plans for Cross-Border Data Searches: After last week’s federal appeals court ruling against the use of federal warrants to search Microsoft’s data held overseas, the Obama administration has initiated agreements that would allow foreign governments to serve US tech companies with warrants to search their email or intercept their messages, as well as authorize US investigators to search data in other nations.

Privacy

Privacy Interest in Mug Shots: The Sixth Circuit ruled that federal agencies are not required to release a federal suspect’s mug shot to the media under the FOIA; agencies may refuse to comply with requests for law enforcement information if such a release could “reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”

Microsoft to Comply with French Data Rules: In response to findings that Windows 10 collects excessive user data and has caused serious breaches, France’s national data protection authority (CNIL) ordered Microsoft to comply with the French Data Protection Act within three months and stop its tracking and data-gathering activities that compromise user privacy and security.

Restraints on Data Retention: In a preliminary ruling over a challenge to UK data retention under the Data Retention and Investigation Powers Act, the Court of Justice of the European Union found that governments may impose general metadata retention obligations and maintain compatibility with EU law, but the obligation must be “necessary to the fight against serious crime[s]” and balanced against privacy risks; the decision is highly influential, albeit not yet legally binding.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Arrested Overseas: Ars Vaulin, alleged founder of the world’s largest BitTorrent distributor, was arrested in Poland; the DOJ charged him with running the website that unlawfully distributed over $1 billion in copyrighted materials.

Intellectual Property

Fitbit Patents Invalidated: A US International Trade Commission judge invalidated three Fitbit patents in a case against Jawbone, finding that the technology in question embodied abstract ideas not subject to patent protection.

Free Expression and Censorship

Making Amends: Twitter permanently banned controversial blogger Milo Yiannopoulos in response to criticism of the social network for failing to prevent anonymous trolls from sending abusive comments to users; Yiannopoulos targeted Leslie Jones, star of the newly-released Ghostbusters movie, with racist and sexist attacks that caused her to leave Twitter.

What Constitutes a Threat? In the wake of the Dallas shooting, the police have arrested several people in four different states for their “threatening” posts on social media, including those naming the shooter a “hero;” the arrests raise concerns as it is unclear whether the speech amounts to a “true threat,” under Supreme Court precedent.

Practice Note

Hijacking Legitimate Websites: A recent cybersecurity report finds that hackers seek to not only harm their target directly, but are increasingly hijacking legitimate websites through an inconspicuous “piggybacking” technique that enables long-term use of websites’ resources and reputation to facilitate the hacker’s own illicit businesses.

On the Lighter Side

Real-Life Filter: Warby Parker is offering its Snapchat followers a chance to bring the app’s features to real life by selling Snapchat-exclusive sunglasses to its followers.

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

Editorial Fellows, CLIP
Victoria J.A. Loeb
Vlad A. Herta

Internet Governance

Access Without Consent: The Ninth Circuit found that a web service that accessed Facebook to obtain users’ contact information and send messages on their behalf “intentionally access[ed] a computer without authorization” in violation of the CFAA, when it connected to the social network after Facebook expressly revoked permission via a cease-and-desist letter and blocked the service’s IP addresses.

Privacy Framework Finalized: This week, the EU Commission approved the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework that redefines US surveillance practices and recourse for EU citizens, allows US companies to “self-certify” their adherence to the framework’s privacy guidelines, and establishes a position for an “ombudsperson” in the US State Department who will address European privacy questions and complaints.

Hunger Activists Turn to Tech: The UN and the World Food Programme are implementing technology initiatives to remedy world hunger; one of their developments is a low bandwidth app for small Guatemalan farmers that provides information on weather, farming and market prices in their location, and another uses a network of government-operated internet cafes to provide an online interactive medium aimed at increasing nutritional education in rural Columbia.

Privacy

Warrant Required for Stingray Use: A federal court ruling in New York suppressed evidence obtained by the government’s warrantless use of a stingray to locate a suspect and held that the Fourth Amendment requires police to obtain a warrant to use a cell-reception simulator.

Search Warrant Quashed: The Second Circuit overruled a decision requiring Microsoft to hand over MSN e-mails stored on a server in Ireland to the U.S. government, finding that courts cannot issue and enforce warrants against U.S.-based service providers to seize client e-mail content stored solely on foreign servers.

Body Camera Info No Longer Public: The Governor of North Carolina signed a bill into law that allows access to police dashboard and body camera footage for persons recorded and their representatives only once they file a request; the law was passed to protect police officers’ privacy and requires petitioners to go to court when law enforcement denies their inquiry.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Messaging Apps Increase Privacy:  Facebook has announced a beta Messenger app version open to certain users, called “secret conversations,” that offers end-to-end encryption (E2EE); an increasing number of messaging apps already use E2EE.

Intellectual Property

New Patent Improves Anti-Piracy Efforts: The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted a patent to NBC Universal that seeks to deter piracy of its copyrighted content by enabling early detection of high volume swarms in peer-to-peer networks; the analytics mechanism processes a data feed of peer-to-peer swarm movement and identifies the high volume swarms whose parameters surpass a threshold.

Free Expression and Censorship

Live Video Protocol: After last week’s live stream of a police shooting was removed  from and then returned to Facebook, the company clarified that its live video policies  will only remove a video of someone’s death if the purpose of the post is to mock the victim or celebrate the incident, and stated that its live video service team is continuously on call to respond to reports of inappropriate content and either remove the content, leave it up, or post a warning disclaimer of graphic content.

Hate Speech Triggers Investigation: German federal police raided the houses of sixty people accused of posting “extremist messages” on a Facebook group; the action represents increasing efforts to contain online hate speech.

Practice Note

Risks Associated with Collecting Metadata: Information security practices like peer-to-peer encryption do increase online communication and content security, however, metadata remains largely outside user control and continues to be widely accumulated; metadata that is not disposed of or limited poses privacy and security risks as it may provide the same information about people as the content of their communication.

On the Lighter Side

Addictive App or Government Puppet? Conspiracy theorists have drawn on the Orwellian nature of Pokémon Go’s privacy policy and its potential links to the intelligence community to suggest that it may serve as a government-spying tool.

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

Editorial Fellows, CLIP
Victoria J.A. Loeb
Vlad A. Herta

Internet Governance

Questions for Automated Driving: U.S. regulators are investigating Tesla’s autopilot driving feature after a fatal crash in May, a reminder that the software may contain flaws and is not designed to act as humans do in all driving situations.

“Nationwide IoT Network:” Inside of one week, Dutch and South Korean telecom operators implemented nationwide IoT networks via mobile transmission towers used for cell reception, allowing users to connect devices to the network via a technology called Long Range (LoRa); examples of usage include rail switch monitoring at the Utrecht Central station and depth measuring devices at the port of Rotterdam.

Protecting Human Rights Online: The United Nations Human Rights Council condemned the practice of shutting down the internet through a resolution stating that rights enjoyed offline “must also be protected online.”

Privacy

Monitoring Google’s Data Collection: A new tool called My Activity allows Google users to see, in chronological order, all their online activity data that Google collects and saves, and features both a delete option to clear the information as well as one to “pause” the data collection.

It’s Still an Agency Record: The D.C. Circuit ruled that agencies must comply with  Freedom of Information Act requests for emails and records stored on non-government  servers, signaling a step forward for transparency but posing questions as to how  agencies will search for government information not stored on their own servers.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Password Sharing Liability: The Ninth Circuit upheld a Computer Fraud and Abuse Act conviction of a former consulting employee who used his coworker’s password to obtain information from the company’s servers and start a competing business; a dissenting judge stated in objection that the ruling could cover everyone who engages in the “ubiquitous, useful, and generally harmless” practice of sharing passwords.

Cybersecurity Investment: The EU Commission announced a public-private partnership to fund cybersecurity research and development of software products and services in key infrastructure sectors; the EU will disburse a maximum of $500 million and expects three times as much investment from the private sector to address cybersecurity concerns and boost European competitiveness.

Intellectual Property

ICANN’s Role in IP: ICANN stated that it will not decide copyright disputes or police content, but will ensure that those involved in the domain registration process are complying with contractual obligations and preventing illegal behavior.

Free Expression and Censorship

Censoring Graphic Live-Stream: A woman present at Wednesday’s Minnesota traffic stop shooting live-streamed the aftermath of the incident to Facebook; the video had 1 million views before Facebook removed it and subsequently re-released it with a graphic warning.

Another Cyberstalking Law Found Invalid: The Illinois Appeals Court found a cyberstalking law invalid because it lacked a malicious intent requirement for the harassment in question; prior courts have also found that absent this mens rea requirement, these cyberstalking laws create new First Amendment restrictions, hindering free speech.

Practice Note

IoT Liability Under TCPA: Smart home applications that allow consumers to remotely control automated home appliances with their smart phones may make service providers liable under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), because the statute requires vendors to communicate “only in a manner consistent with the consumer’s consent;” some text messages alerting users that, for example, a door or a window is open may exceed that scope of consent.

On the Lighter Side

Selfie Epidemic: “Today” show co-anchor was told by her doctor that selfie-taking, placing the arm in an abnormal position, may be a cause of arm pain and stiffness.

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

Editorial Fellows, CLIP
Victoria J.A. Loeb
Vlad A. Herta

Internet Governance

Preparing for IANA Transition: ICANN signed an agreement with the regional internet registries that grants it the coordination and administration role currently served by the US government; in exchange, ICANN is committed to meet new operational benchmarks, fulfill additional obligations such as periodic reviews, and establish an arbitration process to solve future disputes.

Stronger Data Transfer Standards: The EU and the US revised the Privacy Shield data transfer agreement, in response to EU concerns about mass US spying, to include heightened regulations for companies that keep profitable cross-border data on Europeans and transparency in US surveillance.

More Proprietary Undersea Cables: Weeks after Facebook and Microsoft announced they will lay an unprecedentedly capacious trans-Atlantic cable, Google, in cooperation with five Asian telecommunication companies, launched the highest capacity trans-Pacific cable, intended to carry Google’s data between overseas data centers; the move marks a shift in bandwidth capacity from telecommunication companies to tech giants.

Privacy

Security Concerns Lead to Intrusive Proposal: A Department of Homeland Security proposal published in the Federal Register would add a field on the I94W form that asks travelers coming to the US without a visa under the Visa Waiver Program to provide their social media accounts to help screen for links to terrorist activity.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Database Leaked: A “white-hat hacker” obtained a leaked copy of a Thomson Reuters-owned database containing names of over 2.2 million individuals and organizations labeled “heightened risks” and used to screen people for links to crime and terrorism; the hacker’s concern about the database’s inclusion of innocent people has led him to consider leaking it to the public, a risky decision that would alert the true criminals on the list.

Changes to Electronic Tax Filing:  The IRS decided to discontinue the Electronic Filing PINs web tool, which allowed taxpayers to obtain a PIN to file tax returns online, due to security concerns after repeated bot attacks targeted the application, including a successful breach in February where the bot obtained more than 100,000 PINs.

Intellectual Property

Global Literacy Access: Twenty countries have now ratified the Marrakesh Treaty, aimed at increasing literacy and information access for the visually impaired and print disabled through a copyright exception and facilitation of cross-border trade of copyrighted books in special literacy format; the Treaty will take force this coming September.

Free Expression and Censorship

E-Campaigning? Facebook, attempting to maintain an impartial approach to the national  election and refute assertions of political bias by skewing news, still plays a role in  encouraging voting and aiding candidates in managing their platforms on the site;  concerns remain about the role of social networks in influencing user ideology and  beliefs to the detriment of larger societal awareness of differing ideas.

A Step Further for Private Sector Anti-Terror Efforts: Stepping up efforts to combat terrorist propaganda online, Facebook, Google and other tech companies may deploy automated copyright removal methods instead of relying on user reporting, raising concerns about the companies’ cooperation with the government and the possibility that the tools might be abused to suppress free speech.

Practice Note

Security Opportunities Ahead: Items that have long been everyday fixtures in their  respective sectors but are newly automated, such as home appliances, equipment monitoring, and transportation and healthcare devices, are manufactured with minimal security expertise and are vulnerable to hackers, but present significant opportunities for security companies to develop risk models and increase global security.

On the Lighter Side

You Know Nothing, Siri! Siri is giving out all sorts of sassy replies to Game of Thrones finale inquiries, but her failure to answer follow up questions reveals she did not watch closely enough.

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

Editorial Fellows, CLIP
Victoria J.A. Loeb
Vlad A. Herta

Internet Governance

Broadband in Space? NASA pioneers a new internet protocol called Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), which, unlike traditional protocols, does not require all communication nodes to be online simultaneously but stores the data within the network until it can be retransmitted; DTN is now available on the International Space Station, creating more efficient communication with earth and deep space satellites.

Privacy

No Increased FBI Access Yet: A proposal to broaden warrantless FBI access to telephone and internet records from tech companies by using National Security Letters failed to pass in the Senate by two votes; however, a Senate Republican leader may reintroduce the measure due to a last minute decision to switch his vote to “no.”

“The Password Is Dying:” Major American banks are increasingly relying on biometric identification for account security and transaction approval, allowing millions of people to access their bank account online or on their mobile device using fingerprints, facial scanning, or voice identification.

Student Privacy Reform: Colorado, Connecticut, and North Carolina have joined ten other states that have enacted student privacy laws imposing stringent requirements on collectors of student data and their contractual relationships with school districts.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Another Mount Gox? On June 18, a hacker stole $50 million worth of Ether, a bitcoin-like digital currency, from the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), echoing earlier cryptocurrency security and reliability concerns; the DAO, a crowdfunding investment fund that used Ether, had successfully raised $160 million.

Cyber Cooperation: Israel and the U.S. have signed the Cyber Defense Cooperation Agreement, aimed at increasing their bilateral cooperation in the field by developing joint cyber defense infrastructure and private sector alliances, supporting research and new technologies, and improving current information sharing mechanisms between the DHS and Israel’s National Cyber Security Authority.

Intellectual Property

PTAB Decision Upheld: A unanimous Supreme Court upheld a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) process called inter partes review, which allows re-examination of previously issued patents under third party requests, and authorized the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to apply a “broadest reasonable construction” standard to patent claims.

Free Expression and Censorship

Governing Through Social Media: When the Republican majority recessed the House and C-SPAN’s live feed ended, Democrats live-streamed their sit-in over gun legislation through Facebook Live and Twitter’s Periscope.

Censorship Technology: New technology supported by the White House allows internet companies to instantly detect terrorist images and videos and remove them from their platforms; however, social media companies say that lack of clarity as to what constitutes a “terrorist image” may lead them to delete information posted by non-threatening sources.

Practice Note

IoT Challenges: The increasing capability of inter-communication within the “internet of things” that threatens to flood existing channels raises issues with authentication and authorization of devices, and infiltration opportunities require better policing, potential FCC bandwidth allocation, and new regulatory needs to manage increased traffic.

On the Lighter Side

1984 or 2016? The annual theatrical mock trial composed of two Supreme Court justices and three appellate judges spoofed “1984” including exaggerated and comical surveillance claims.

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

Editorial Fellows, CLIP
Victoria J.A. Loeb
Vlad A. Herta

Internet Governance

Net Neutrality Win: The D.C. Circuit in a 2-to-1 decision upheld FCC regulations declaring broadband internet a public utility and internet service providers common carriers, opening the way for stricter consumer protection measures and industry oversight, such as bans on selective blocking or slowing delivery of content to internet users.

Tech Enablement:  A man whose daughter died in November’s terrorist attacks in Paris is suing Facebook, Twitter and Google, claiming that the companies “knowingly” permitted ISIS to use their networks to raise money, spread propaganda, and recruit; the tech companies may not enjoy their usual immunity under the Communications Decency Act because the lawsuit targets the “enablement” of ISIS, rather than the explicit content.

New Measures for Cybersecurity Strategy: Senators from both sides of the aisle announced the establishment of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus enabling lawmaker education on cyber and the study of “cyberspace’s effects on national security and the economy.”

Privacy

Circuit Court Finds Credit Card Seizure Legal:  The Eighth Circuit recently found that where all of the information in a credit card’s magnetic strip is identical to the information visible on the front of the card, law enforcement’s swiping or scanning of a seized, counterfeit card does not constitute a physical search in violation of the Fourth Amendment because the defendant has no reasonable privacy interest in the card.

Apple Vows to Protect Privacy by Collecting Even More User Data:  Revealing new security and privacy features on its devices such as user fingerprint ID login on laptops, Apple maintained that it would ensure data security through differential privacy, a complex technique that adds statistical noise from aggregate user databases to hide individual contributions, thereby preventing individual identification from usage data.

Potential Privacy Reform: A widely supported bipartisan group of House members will propose amendments to the current House Defense Appropriations bill to heighten privacy and security measures, by cutting funding for warrantless agency backdoor searches and protecting encryption devices and standards from NSA and CIA interference; however passage will depend on whether the House Rules Committee maintains the current rule preventing debate on privacy and security amendments.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Campaign Infiltration: Two sophisticated Russian hacking groups breached the Democratic National Committee’s network and have accessed data as far back as one year, looking for foreign policy, strategy, and campaign information; each group conducted its attack at different times and did not appear to be collaborating.

Intellectual Property

Flexible Test for Treble Damages in Patent Infringement: The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Seagate two-step test for awarding treble damages in patent infringement cases is “unduly rigid,” granting district court judges discretion to “award enhanced damages to egregious cases of misconduct beyond typical infringement.”

Free Expression and Censorship

Europe May ‘Delete Your Account’:  The EU’s new code of conduct targeting illegal online hate speech, and backed by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft, raises questions about Donald Trump’s controversial Twitter account in Europe, as the EU’s framework may prohibit much of his account’s content.

Practice Note

IT Admins Liable under the CFAA: A Texas jury found an IT administrator guilty of violating the CFAA for deleting files from his employer’s database before he left his job; his charge of “unauthorized damages” for “intentionally causing damage to a computer system” reveals the ease with which IT professionals may face criminal charges.

On the Lighter Side

No Papers Left Behind: Morocco will ban cafés from offering free newspapers, including those left behind by patrons, as part of a plan to protect the shrinking newspaper industry.

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

Editorial Fellows, CLIP
Victoria J.A. Loeb
Vlad A. Herta

Internet Governance

Ask Before You Give? Senator Ted Cruz has moved for the passage of a new bill that would require Congressional approval for IANA transition of control of domain names and IP numbers and would require the Obama administration to secure “sole ownership” of top-level domain names dot-gov and dot-mil.

App Sparks “Traffic War”: Google’s traffic navigation app Waze, that updates its map with real time driver information on optimal routes and blockages, has created an influx of traffic in some residential neighborhoods, leading inhabitants to post false accident and blockage information to detour this traffic from insider resident shortcuts; however, Waze has mechanisms to recognize and boot out ‘impostors’.

Internet Access Cut for Singapore Government Workers: In an attempt to improve government cybersecurity, Singapore is cutting all public workers’ internet access from office computers by May 2017; questions remain as to how workers will be able to collaborate without internet.

Privacy

Identifiable Ink:  The National Institution of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the FBI, studying the effectiveness of tattoo-recognition systems, used prisoner tattoo images to form a database that can identify and match visual aspects of tattoos; however, NIST has halted future plans to use third-party algorithms to further analyze the 100,000 tattoo images in response to concerns that the system may misidentify people, or lead to religious, political, social, or other types of profiling.

Data Protection Agreement: The U.S. and the E.U. have signed an agreement regarding the protection of personal information and data exchanged during law enforcement agency investigations; however this “umbrella” agreement requires U.S. Senate and European Parliament approval to become law.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

A Call for Fed Transparency: The House Science, Space and Technology Committee’s oversight panel, investigating the Federal Reserve’s protection of sensitive financial information, has requested that the Fed’s cybersecurity uniformity team deliver all cyber breach reports, local incident reports, and documents and communications relating to “higher impact cases” from January 2009 to now, in response to a Reuters report revealing over fifty U.S. central bank cyber breaches between 2011 and 2015.

Repeat Attacks: According to a recent study, many European organizations face repeat  attacks within months of the initial hack as outdated methods prevent identification of  network threats; minimal external agency breach alerts and high “dwell times” for  breaches in Europe, the Middle East and Africa means that local governments may not  adequately spot and notify businesses about a breach.

Celebrity Account Vulnerability? Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn accounts were temporarily compromised, possibly after hackers obtained his password from last month’s LinkedIn email and password dump from the 2012 hack; the incident is part of a series of recent celebrity account hacks, reflecting questionable security in high-profile account management.

Free Expression and Censorship

“Hate Speech” Manipulated: Days after tech companies such as Facebook and Google backed the E.U.’s appeal to start censoring online “hate speech,” reports emerged about Russia’s use of hate speech laws to imprison ordinary social media users expressing views in opposition to government policies.

Practice Note

Metadata Needs Privacy Too:  New research highlights the need for privacy laws to respond to the difficulty of differentiating between the actual content of private communications and the metadata records that derive from those communications and contain personal information.

On the Lighter Side

Not Now Siri, We’re in Public! Study reveals people are too embarrassed to talk to digital assistants in front of other people.

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

Editorial Fellows, CLIP
Victoria J.A. Loeb
Vlad A. Herta

Internet Governance

Toothless Open Access Initiative?  E.U. research ministers forming the Competitiveness Council pledged to achieve free and open access to scientific publications by 2020, seeking to eliminate or reduce the six to twelve month post-publication online exclusion period, and inviting member states to implement policies in accordance with their unique research and development structures; however, there is no legal enforcement mechanism at present. 

Under the Sea: Tech companies’ need for bandwidth has led them to invest in laying undersea cables, rather than relying on telecomm companies; Microsoft and Facebook announced plans to build a 160 terabits-per-second-capacity cable (the highest capacity cable ever built) stretching from the coast of Virginia to Bilbao, Spain.

Privacy

FBI Information Requests Made Public: Yahoo was able to publish three national security letters from the FBI requesting user information after the FBI lightened its nondisclosure provisions in compliance with changes to the USA Freedom Act; the tech company pledged to update its Transparency Reports to acknowledge the number of NSLs received and the accounts listed in those letters – a departure from the standard, discrete reporting of national security demands.

Biometric Law Likely Safe: The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, one of the few U.S. laws restricting the collection and retention of facial images and a source of Facebook’s facial recognition technology litigation, was threatened by a proposed amendment that would have excluded digital photo “tagging” from the Illinois law’s scope; the amendment, proposed to a bill unrelated to biometrics, was blocked at the judicial committee hearing.

Anti-security Bill Dead: A bipartisan Senate bill, proposed after Apple’s noncompliance with the FBI’s request to hack the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, would have required tech companies to leave an “encryption backdoor” in their products to ensure compliance with government requests for the decryption of consumer data; but, security concerns and pro-encryption privacy efforts led to minimal support for the bill.

Information Security and Cyberthreats

Beneficial Overreaction: Over-hyped reports on allegedly significant data breaches that urge users to change their passwords, even though actual security threats remain minimal or unchanged, serve to increase user awareness of security risks and implementation of effortless and straightforward security protections.

Intellectual Property

The Verdict Is Out: A jury verdict finding that Google’s implementation of Java APIs in developing Android constituted fair use and saving Google $9 billion in damages brought relief to the software development community; however, since the APIs are protected by copyright, questions remain about whether other Java implementations infringe.

Free Expression and Censorship

Tech Giants’ Efforts Against Hate Speech:  Responding to the E.U.’s appeals for support, Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube and Microsoft will review notice and takedown requests and disable access to hateful content and will collaborate with civil society organizations to back “counter-narratives” to online hate speech.

Information War Defenses: Pro-Russian internet and social media campaigns are perceived as a developing risk to Europe’s security, democracy and domestic exchange of information; NATO and the E.U. have created “special units” to handle the threat; and E.U. member Finland, a vigorous participant in these “information wars,” has broadened its collaboration with NATO in consideration of full alliance.

On the Lighter Side

Facebook Crimebuster? UK police were able to find and convict a thief after one of his victims noticed the crook on the Facebook’s “People You May know” feature.

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

Editorial Fellows, CLIP
Victoria J.A. Loeb
Vlad A. Herta