Cyberside Chats: Everyone wants to be Batman. Hacking Back & Cybersecurity Law
Looking back at 2021 and ahead to 2022
Monthly Minute | Protecting Against Data Scrapers
Death of Activist Aaron Swartz Could Spur Changes to Computer Fraud & Abuse Act
Employer’s Takeover of Former CEO’s LinkedIn Account Lawful Under CFAA
Welcome to the ninth installment in our monthly data privacy litigation report, which we are releasing just after the New Year. We prepare these reports to provide updates on how courts in the United States have handled...more
In a putative class action filed on June 28, 2023, in the Northern District of California, and in other similar cases, plaintiffs allege that OpenAI, Microsoft, and their respective affiliates violated the privacy rights of...more
This week, a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for its use of a COVID-19 contact-tracing app for residents’ mobile phones. However, very few residents...more
World events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have accelerated the need for business operations to grow more digitally reliant and driven. As the global network grows and becomes more interconnected, privacy and...more
In today’s highly connected, tech-obsessed world, personal electronic devices (“devices”), including tablet computers and mobile phones, are seemingly ubiquitous. Increasingly, employers are capitalizing on this phenomenon by...more
Connecticut Passes the Fifth US State Consumer Privacy Law - The Connecticut governor has formally signed and passed An Act Concerning Personal Data Privacy and Online Monitoring (CPDA), making this law the fifth US state...more
California federal Judge William Alsup dismissed various claims against Mint Mobile LLC based on a data breach that exposed personal information of Mint customers. Plaintiff Daniel Fraser alleged that Mint, a mobile virtual...more
On April 18, 2022, the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed its narrow interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act’s (CFAA) “without authorization” prong in a data scraping dispute between hiQ and LinkedIn. The opinion upheld a...more
Professor, Attorney and Expert in Cybersecurity Policy & Governance, Kevin Powers joins Jerich Beason & Whitney McCollum to discuss where the law stands on “Hacking Back”. Everyone at some point wants to be Batman. During...more
The past year’s trends in privacy and cybersecurity are set to intensify in 2022, with heightened threats, increased regulations, and elevated expectations - as well as new opportunities. To navigate the year ahead, we lay...more
Despite the ever increasing concerns over privacy and data breaches, both externally and internally, it may become more difficult for employers to legally protect their confidential and proprietary information...more
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
TikTok is once again making news, but not because of a viral dance or fashion trend. A class action lawsuit is now pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against the popular video sharing...more
Last week, the Italian data protection authority (the “GPDP”) opened an investigation after reports that a dataset allegedly containing data compiled from 500 million LinkedIn profiles and other websites was available for...more
In November 2020, Yodlee and its parent company Envestnet filed separate motions to dismiss the class action lawsuit brought over Yodlee’s alleged data collection and use practices. Yodlee’s motion to dismiss argued that...more
In 2020, COVID-19 collided with a presidential election, forever altering the workplace as we knew it. In 2021 employers are faced with reimagining the employer/employee relationship while simultaneously trying to keep pace...more
Now entering its ninth month in the United States with no sign of slowing down, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many employers to make permanent changes to business operations in order to survive. Among the most noticeable...more
If you are like me and recently purchased new technology to help you efficiently work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, you may be using a device that incorporates facial recognition technology into its cadre of...more
UNITED STATES - Regulatory—Policy, Best Practices, and Standards - Cybersecurity Standards Issued for Government Contractors - On January 31, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and...more
Data scraping is a technique by which automated tools are used to extract data from a website and format the data for analysis. Many companies mine website users’ publicly accessible data in order to tailor products and...more
Facebook announced on September, 20th, that it has suspended tens of thousands of apps from interoperating with the Facebook platform alleging misuse of Facebook members’ personal data. This is a continuation of the Cambridge...more
Data scraping is a technique where information on one platform is exported onto another. The practice is widespread and is used for all sort of reasons, like market analysis or advertising. The kind of information located and...more
If you’re going to demote or terminate your in-house tech expert, you should plan that event very carefully. Our firm is now helping a client with damage control and data recovery upon discovering – a week after their...more
UNITED STATES - Regulatory—Policy, Best Practices, and Standards - FTC Comments on Improvements to IoT Device Security - On June 19, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") submitted comments to a working group organized by the...more
Is it okay to scrape data from another website? This is a frequently asked question that almost always leads to an ambiguous and equivocal answer. Legal practitioners are quick to point out the risks of civil and criminal...more