President Trump signed an Executive Order today attempting to curtail legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“Section 230” or the “CDA”). The Executive Order strives to clarify that Section 230...more
UPDATE: On the afternoon of May 28, 2020, the President signed the executive order concerning CDA Section 230. A copy/link to the order has not yet been posted on the White House’s website.
According to news reports,...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
This past March, many organizations were forced to suddenly pivot to a “work from home” environment (“WFH”) as COVID-19 spread across our country. However, many companies did not have the necessary technical infrastructure in...more
We continue to wait to see if the Supreme Court will accept LinkedIn’s petition to overturn the Ninth Circuit’s blockbuster ruling in the hiQ Labs case. In that case, the appeals court held that an entity engaging in...more
In an innovative initiative in the battle against the Coronavirus, the newly-formed Open COVID Coalition (the “Coalition”) launched the Open COVID Pledge (the “Pledge”), a framework for organizations to contribute...more
In recent years, courts have issued a host of rulings as to whether online or mobile users received adequate notice of and consented to user agreements or website terms when completing an online purchase or registering for a...more
4/9/2020
/ Arbitration ,
Commercial Mobile Radio Service (CMRS) ,
Deadlines ,
Enforcement ,
FCC ,
Fees ,
Interstate Telecommunications Service Providers (ITSP) ,
Online Contracts ,
Online Payments ,
Telecommunications ,
Terms of Service
In early February 2020, before most of us were truly aware of the implications of COVID-19, a well-respected IT consulting group predicted a $4.3 trillion global spend on information technology in 2020. Drivers of the...more
4/7/2020
/ Cloud Computing ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Information Technology ,
Infrastructure ,
Innovative Technology ,
Investment Funds ,
Remote Working ,
Risk Management ,
SaaS ,
Telecommuting
An interesting New York Times article last week posited that governments’ use of digital surveillance techniques for the COVID-19 response – such as the tracking of geolocation to gauge quarantine restrictions – would lead to...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
Teami, LLC (“Teami”), a marketer of teas and skincare products, agreed to settle FTC charges alleging that its retained social media influencers did not sufficiently disclose that they were being paid to promote Teami’s...more
On March 19, 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), issued Guidance on the essential critical infrastructure workforce needed to ensure national resilience...more
Despite continued scrutiny over the legal immunity online providers enjoy under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), online platforms continue to successfully invoke its protections. This is illustrated by...more
With the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), many organizations are requiring or permitting employees to work remotely. This post is intended to remind employers and employees that in the haste to implement widespread...more
3/13/2020
/ Business Continuity Plans ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Phishing Scams ,
Public Health ,
Remote Working ,
Risk Management ,
Telecommuting
This past week, LinkedIn filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to overturn the Ninth Circuit’s blockbuster ruling in hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp., 938 F.3d 985 (9th Cir. 2019). The case...more
As part of the response to the outbreak of COVID-19, many organizations are working on contingency and business continuity plans that include an all-employee “work-from-home” scenario. If it becomes necessary to implement...more
3/10/2020
/ Business Continuity Plans ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Protection ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Phishing Scams ,
Public Health ,
Remote Working ,
Risk Management ,
Telecommuting
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
Beyond the human toll of the current global health crisis, the coronavirus outbreak is having serious economic repercussions to the global economy and the supply chains on which it depends. Dun & Bradstreet reported, “at...more
3/2/2020
/ Best Practices ,
Business Interruption ,
Contract Terms ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Emergency Management Plans ,
Force Majeure Clause ,
Foreign Commerce ,
Imports ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Performance Standards ,
Public Health ,
Risk Management ,
Suppliers ,
Supply Chain ,
Supply Contracts
On February 19, 2020, the European Commission (Commission) released a communication entitled “A European strategy for data”. It lays out a vision for a “European data space” and a plan – through legislation, technical...more
As 2019 came to a close, we looked ahead into 2020 and noted that data would continue to be a huge issue for the digital economy. We have not been disappointed. On February 19, 2020, the European Commission (the “Commission”)...more
Epic Games, Inc. (“Epic”) is the publisher of the popular online multiplayer videogame Fortnite, released in 2017. In recent years, Fortnight has gained worldwide popularity with gamers and esports followers (culminating in...more
TradeLens – a blockchain based shipping consortium – received an important antitrust exemption last week from the Federal Maritime Commission. The exemption allows five major container line shipping companies within the...more
The most typical case that implicates Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) involves a provider that hosts content and a third party plaintiff seeking to have content removed. Last month, in a less typical case,...more
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
In 2018, Congress passed the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) to modernize the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). CFIUS is chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury and is...more