On January 23, 2024, a California district court released its opinion in a closely-watched scraping dispute between the social media platform Meta and data provider Bright Data Ltd. (“Bright Data”) over Bright Data’s alleged...more
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
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
The ink is barely dry on the landmark Ninth Circuit hiQ Labs decision. Yet, a new dispute has already cropped up testing the bounds of the CFAA and the ability of a platform to enforce terms restricting unauthorized scraping...more
9/30/2019
/ Breach of Contract ,
Cease and Desist ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Facebook ,
Injunctive Relief ,
LinkedIn ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Public Disclosure ,
Revocation ,
Terms of Use ,
Unauthorized Access ,
Web Scraping
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 recent years, there have been a number of suits filed in federal courts seeking to hold social media platforms responsible for providing material support to terrorists by allowing members of such groups to use social media...more
As discussed in past posts about the long-running Facebook biometric privacy class action, users are challenging Facebook’s “Tag Suggestions” program, which scans for and identifies people in uploaded photographs for photo...more
6/1/2018
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Class Certification ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Dormant Commerce Clause ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Photographs ,
Private Right of Action ,
Standing
There has been a lot of attention in the media lately with respect to the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica issue and its fall-out (including today’s coverage of the announcement that Facebook suspended almost 200 apps pending a...more
5/17/2018
/ Apple ,
Cambridge Analytica ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Facebook ,
Mobile Apps ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Privacy Concerns
This week, the District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the Gullen putative class action asserting Illinois biometric privacy claims brought by “non-users” based on evidence that the social media site...more
4/6/2018
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Photographs ,
Standing ,
Summary Judgment
This past week, a California district court again declined Facebook’s motion to dismiss an ongoing litigation involving claims under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 Ill. Comp Stat. 14/1 (“BIPA”),...more
3/5/2018
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Photographs ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing ,
VPPA
Facebook recently announced that it would make changes to its news feed to prioritize content that users share and discuss and material from “reputable publishers.” These changes are part of what Mark Zuckerberg says is a...more
This past week, the Supreme Court denied the petitions for certiorari in two noteworthy Ninth Circuit decisions that had interpreted the scope of liability under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in the context...more
10/16/2017
/ Appeals ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Facebook ,
Former Employee ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS ,
Social Media ,
Terms of Use ,
Unauthorized Access ,
US v Nosal ,
Web Scraping
This past week, the Ninth Circuit released two important decisions that clarify the scope of liability under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. § 1030. The Act was originally designed to target...more
7/15/2016
/ Cease and Desist ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Economic Espionage Act ,
Facebook ,
Former Employee ,
Passwords ,
Popular ,
Summary Judgment ,
Terms of Use ,
Trade Secrets ,
Unauthorized Access ,
US v Nosal ,
Web Scraping ,
Young Lawyers
We’ve previously blogged about the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) privacy multistakeholder process to address concerns associated with the emerging commercial use of facial recognition...more
6/24/2016
/ Best Practices ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Consent ,
Data Security ,
Data-Sharing ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Google ,
NTIA ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Shutterfly ,
Snapchat ,
Transparency
The District Court for the Northern District of California recently issued what could be a very significant decision on a number of important digital law issues. These include: the enforceability of “clickwrap” as compared...more
5/10/2016
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Choice-of-Law ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Enforceability ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Shutterfly ,
Terms of Use
As we have previously noted, there are several ongoing privacy-related lawsuits alleging that facial recognition-based systems of photo tagging violate the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The photo storage...more
As we have previously noted, Facebook has been named as a defendant in a number of lawsuits claiming that its facial recognition-based system of photo tagging violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). ...more
As discussed in a previous post on facial recognition technology, a putative class action has been filed against Facebook over the collection of “faceprints” for its online photo tagging function, Tag Suggestions. (See e.g.,...more
10/16/2015
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Consent ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Databases ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Injunctions ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Personal Data ,
Photographs ,
Popular ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Shutterfly ,
Statutory Damages
This week, a major self-regulatory initiative intended to address privacy concerns associated with facial recognition technology hit a significant stumbling block. Nine consumer advocacy groups withdrew from the National...more
6/24/2015
/ Biometric Information ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Facebook ,
Facial Recognition Technology ,
Fair Use ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Informed Consent ,
NTIA ,
Opt-Outs ,
Popular ,
Prior Express Consent ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Privacy Disclosures ,
Privacy Policy ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Self-Regulatory Organizations ,
Social Media ,
Transparency ,
Young Lawyers