Since the start of the year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has brought actions against – and reached proposed settlements with – three business ventures engaged in the collection, use and sharing of certain consumer...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has long expressed a concern about the potential misuse of location data. For example, in a 2022 blog post, “Location, health, and other sensitive information: FTC committed to fully...more
On August 29, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had filed a complaint against Kochava, Inc. (“Kochava”), a digital marketing and analytics firm, seeking an order halting Kochava’s alleged acquisition...more
On July 11, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published “Location, health, and other sensitive information: FTC committed to fully enforcing the law against illegal use and sharing of highly sensitive data,” on its...more
7/15/2022
/ Abortion ,
Biden Administration ,
Consumer Information ,
Data Collection ,
Data Protection ,
Data-Sharing ,
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Healthcare ,
Location Data ,
Location Privacy ,
Mobile Health Apps ,
Patient Access ,
Patient Privacy Rights ,
PHI ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Reproductive Healthcare Issues ,
SCOTUS ,
Sensitive Personal Information ,
Women's Rights
On June 15, 2022, Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill, cosponsored by a host of other Democratic and independent Senators, the “Health and Location Data Protection Act of 2022,” which, subject to a few exceptions,...more
On September 30, 2021, a Texas district court granted Southwest Airline Co.’s (“Southwest”) request for a preliminary injunction against online travel site Kiwi.com, Inc. (“Kiwi”), barring Kiwi from, among other things,...more
10/4/2021
/ Airlines ,
Aviation Industry ,
Breach of Contract ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Contract Terms ,
Data Collection ,
Likelihood of Success ,
Online Platforms ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Southwest Airlines ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Unauthorized Access ,
Web Scraping
On August 5, 2021, a proposed class action settlement was reached in the closely-watched privacy action against fintech services company Plaid Inc. (“Plaid”). The settlement features a $58 million settlement fund and certain...more
8/9/2021
/ Class Action ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financial Transactions ,
FinTech ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Popular ,
Settlement Agreements
On April 30, 2021 a California district court trimmed various federal privacy-related claims, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) claim, from a highly-visible, ongoing putative class action against fintech...more
On December 9, 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple and Google will block the data broker X-Mode Social Inc. (“X-Mode”) from collecting location data from iPhone and Android users. Apple and Google have...more
12/11/2020
/ Apple ,
Carpenter v US ,
Cell Phones ,
Cell Site Location Information (CSLI) ,
Data Brokers ,
Data Collection ,
Data-Sharing ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Geolocation ,
Google ,
Location Data
In continuing its efforts to enforce its terms and policies against developers that engage in unauthorized scraping of user data, this week Facebook brought suit against two marketing analytics firms, BrandTotal Ltd...more
Last week, a putative privacy-related class action was filed in California district court against financial analytics firm Envestnet, Inc. (“Envestnet”), which operates Yodlee, Inc. (“Yodlee”). (Wesch v. Yodlee Inc., No....more
This past week, the operator of the popular Weather Channel (“TWC”) mobile phone app entered into a Stipulation of Settlement with the Los Angeles City Attorney, Mike Feuer (“City Attorney”), closing the books on one of the...more
8/18/2020
/ Advertising ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Consumer Information ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Data Collection ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
Geolocation ,
Location Data ,
Location Privacy ,
Mobile Apps ,
Privacy Policy ,
Unfair Competition
In what could be prove to be an important decision within the context of scraping of “public” data, in a recent case the Eleventh Circuit reversed a lower court’s dismissal of trade secret claims relating to the scraping of...more
On April 30, 2020, the French data protection authority, the CNIL, published a guidance surrounding considerations behind what it calls “commercial prospecting,” meaning scraping publicly available website data to obtain...more
While Washington’s comprehensive data privacy bill (SB 6182) — inspired by California’s CCPA — died when legislators could not hammer out a compromise over enforcement mechanisms, the state legislature did reach agreement and...more
In continuing its push to enforce its terms and policies against developers that engage in unauthorized collection or scraping of user data, Facebook brought suit last month against mobile marketing and data analytics firm...more
3/10/2020
/ Breach of Contract ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Facebook ,
Personal Information ,
Popular ,
Public Disclosure ,
Social Media ,
Terms of Use ,
Unauthorized Access ,
Web Scraping
On January 31st, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai transmitted a letter in response to a prior inquiry from a number of House members regarding the status of the Commission’s investigation into reports that the major wireless carriers...more
Last week, Democratic Senators Ron Wyden and Sherrod Brown and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo sent a letter to FTC Chairman Joseph J. Simons urging the agency to investigate whether analytics firm Envestnet, Inc. (which operates...more
1/22/2020
/ Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data-Sharing ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FTC Act ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Personal Data ,
Popular ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
t is that time of year when we look back to see what tech-law issues took up most of our time this year and look ahead to see what the emerging issues are for 2020.
Data: The Issues of the Year -
Data presented a wide...more
12/24/2019
/ 5G Network ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Big Data ,
Blockchain ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
CFIUS ,
Communications Decency Act ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Collection ,
Data Security ,
Deep Fake ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
International Data Transfers ,
Machine Learning ,
Popular ,
Privacy Laws ,
Social Media ,
Technology Sector
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the retrieval of electronic automobile data from an electronic data recording device (e.g., airbag control modules) without a warrant at the scene of a fatal collision was a search and...more
10/22/2019
/ Automated Systems ,
Car Accident ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Data Collection ,
Driverless Cars ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Evidence Suppression ,
Fourth Amendment ,
GA Supreme Court ,
Internet of Things ,
Search & Seizure ,
Vehicular Homicide
In a ruling that is being hailed as a victory for web scrapers and the open nature of publicly available website data, the Ninth Circuit today issued its long-awaited opinion in hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp., No. 17-16783...more
9/10/2019
/ Appeals ,
Cease and Desist ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
E-Commerce ,
LinkedIn ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Revocation ,
Social Media ,
Terms of Use ,
Unauthorized Access ,
User Agreements ,
Web Scraping ,
Website Owner Liability
This week, the FTC entered into a proposed settlement with Unrollme Inc. (“Unrollme”), a free personal email management service that offers to assist consumers in managing the flood of subscription emails in their inboxes....more
8/12/2019
/ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Data Collection ,
Data Mining ,
Data Privacy ,
Email ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Market Research ,
Prior Express Consent ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Privacy Policy ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
In an important opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling that plaintiffs in the ongoing Facebook biometric privacy class action have alleged a concrete injury-in-fact to confer Article III standing and that...more
8/12/2019
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fingerprints ,
IL Supreme Court ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Social Media ,
Standing ,
Statutory Violations
In the past few months, there have been a number of notable decisions affirming broad immunity under the Communications Decency Act (CDA), 47 U.S.C. §230(c), for online providers that host third party content. The beat goes...more
6/24/2019
/ Communications Decency Act ,
Data Collection ,
Dismissals ,
Immunity ,
Section 230 ,
Third-Party ,
Tortious Interference ,
Unfair Competition ,
User-Generated Content ,
Website Owner Liability ,
Websites
Yesterday, the Georgia Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument in an appeal brought by a defendant convicted of vehicular homicide and other charges related to a fatal car crash. (Mobley v. State, No. S18C1546). The...more
6/20/2019
/ Automated Systems ,
Car Accident ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Data Collection ,
Driverless Cars ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Evidence Suppression ,
Fourth Amendment ,
GA Supreme Court ,
Search & Seizure ,
Vehicular Homicide