Cybersecurity & Privacy

  • October 29, 2024

    MVP: Morgan & Morgan's John Yanchunis

    John Yanchunis, head of the class action group at plaintiffs' injury firm Morgan & Morgan, helped secure a deal whereby Google agreed to settle claims that the search giant misled Chrome users about the privacy features of the browser's "Incognito Mode," earning him a spot among the 2024 Law360 Cybersecurity & Privacy MVPs.

  • October 28, 2024

    Tech Groups Target Fla. Law To Restrict Kids On Social Media

    A pair of tech industry trade associations are pressing a Florida federal court to strike down a new state law that would ban children under 13 and restrict 14- and 15-year-olds from social media, arguing that the measure would unconstitutionally stifle free speech and create new "honeypots" of personal data for hackers to exploit.  

  • October 28, 2024

    7th Circ. Signals Its Rulings Govern Citizens BIPA Policy Spat

    The Seventh Circuit seemed uninterested Monday in shifting focus from its own precedent to either newly certified questions or a state appellate decision to determine whether a district court correctly cleared Citizens Insurance Company of America of covering a biometric privacy suit.

  • October 28, 2024

    Apple Says Section 230 Dooms ICloud Child Porn Claims

    Apple urged a California federal judge to throw out a proposed class action Friday alleging it has engaged in "privacy-washing" by ignoring a problem with child sexual abuse material on its iCloud storage platform, arguing that the claims are barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

  • October 28, 2024

    Leader Of Bankers' Group Calls For Anti-Fraud Watchdogs

    The head of the nation's largest banking trade group on Monday called on Congress and the White House to establish a federal office of scam and fraud prevention to counteract the rising tide of fraud costing the U.S. tens of billions annually.

  • October 28, 2024

    FTC, DOJ Tell 9th Circ. Google Wrong On Play Store Fixes

    Federal antitrust enforcers told the Ninth Circuit there should be consequences after a jury found Google monopolized the Android app distribution market, as Google pushes to keep a court order paused in the antitrust case being brought by Epic Games.

  • October 28, 2024

    Conn. Healthcare Co.'s $1.5M Data Breach Deal Gets Final OK

    A Connecticut federal judge has given his final approval to a class action settlement that requires Merritt Healthcare Advisors to pay thousands of people whose personal information was exposed in a data breach.

  • October 28, 2024

    Mass. Court's Wiretap Ruling May Be Bad Omen For Plaintiffs

    A ruling by the Massachusetts high court rejecting wiretap claims over website operators' use of tracking software like Meta Pixel and Google Analytics shows the steep climb plaintiffs may continue to face as they try to apply older laws to modern technologies, experts told Law360.

  • October 28, 2024

    Denver Law Firm Faces Class Action Over Data Breach

    The former spouse of a Sherr Puttmann Akins Lamb PC client has launched a putative class action in Colorado state court alleging that sensitive information she provided to the Denver-based family law firm, including her Social Security number, ended up on the dark web following a data breach.

  • October 28, 2024

    CrowdStrike Fires Back At Delta In IT Outage Blame Game

    CrowdStrike filed a federal lawsuit against Delta Air Lines on Friday, the same day the airline filed a $500 million complaint in Georgia state court blaming the cybersecurity firm for implementing "untested and faulty updates" to its software that knocked out computers with Microsoft Windows operating systems worldwide.

  • October 28, 2024

    King & Spalding Adds White & Case Antitrust Litigator In NY

    King & Spalding LLP is expanding its business litigation team, announcing Monday it is bringing in a White & Case LLP litigator as a partner in its New York office to boost its antitrust capabilities.

  • October 28, 2024

    MVP: Dechert's Brenda Sharton

    Dechert LLP partner Brenda Sharton helped the developer of a popular "magic avatar" app shake sprawling class claims that its AI-generated portraits unlawfully harvest Illinois residents' biometric data, earning her a place among the 2024 Law360 Cybersecurity & Privacy MVPs.

  • October 25, 2024

    AI Surge, Vendor Risks Fuel Election Security Concerns

    The explosion of the tech known as artificial intelligence and persistent vendor security holes are amplifying longstanding concerns about efforts by hostile nations and other cyberattackers to disrupt and discredit U.S. elections as officials work to guard against both familiar and novel risks.

  • October 25, 2024

    Delta Says CrowdStrike Must Pay For Catastrophic IT Outage

    When cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike implemented "untested and faulty updates" to its software, knocking out computers with Microsoft Windows operating systems worldwide, Delta Air Lines' operations were crippled, costing it $500 million as thousands of flights were canceled, according to the airline's lawsuit lodged Friday in Georgia state court.

  • October 25, 2024

    Crypto Rapidly Transforming IRS Criminal Cases, Agent Says

    Cryptocurrency is altering the size of many criminal cases that federal law enforcement agencies are handling, an Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator told the UCLA Tax Controversy Conference, commenting that over the past three years the agency broke its record for asset seizures three times.

  • October 25, 2024

    Apple-Google Pact Plaintiff Stuck With 9th Circ. Appeal

    A Ninth Circuit panel has refused to let a training school send its case accusing Google of paying Apple to refrain from developing its own search engine back to district court in light of a recent D.C. federal judge's decision that Google monopolizes the search market.

  • October 25, 2024

    Social Media MDL Judge Rips Meta, AGs' Agency Doc Fight

    A California federal judge Friday slammed counsel for Meta and dozens of state attorneys general during a contentious hearing in multidistrict litigation over claims social media is addictive for not reaching agreements on Meta's demands for documents from 275 state agencies, telling both sides' attorneys, "we should've never gotten here."

  • October 25, 2024

    AI Researchers Lose Bid For DMCA Anti-Hacking Carveout

    Researchers who want to look into whether generative artificial intelligence was producing content that was discriminatory or explicit won't be exempt from a provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that bars circumventing digital locks on copyrighted material, according to a new rule.

  • October 25, 2024

    Heinz Charity Ends Embezzlement Suit Against Ex-Adviser

    The Pittsburgh-based Heinz Endowments has dropped a federal lawsuit accusing a former technology adviser of steering nearly $1 million of work to a sham company, according to court filings.

  • October 25, 2024

    Photo App Says BIPA Ignorance Warrants Insurance Coverage

    The company behind a website and app that allow families to view photos of their children at summer camp told an Illinois federal judge it had no idea about the state's biometric privacy law, and thus couldn't have knowingly violated it, arguing that means insurers cannot shirk their responsibility to defend it in an underlying suit. 

  • October 25, 2024

    Election Records Law Needs Update, Mich. Justice Says

    The Michigan Supreme Court declined on Friday to revive criminal charges against an election worker who downloaded a copy of a voter list onto a personal thumb drive, prompting one justice to argue the law he was cleared of violating is out of touch in the digital age.  

  • October 25, 2024

    'Magician' Tax Preparer Close To Plea Deal In $100M Case

    A New York City-based tax preparer who earned the nickname "the magician," allegedly making $15 million while fraudulently depriving the IRS of $100 million, is in "fruitful" plea talks with prosecutors, a Manhattan federal judge heard Friday.

  • October 25, 2024

    IRS Agents To Appeal Exclusion From Biden Tax Privacy Case

    The IRS agents accused of improperly revealing Hunter Biden's tax return information in his privacy lawsuit against the U.S. government told a D.C. federal court Friday that they're planning to challenge a decision preventing them from personally intervening in the case.

  • October 25, 2024

    Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Skadden, Kirkland

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp. absorbs Sandy Spring Bancorp, Sophos and Secureworks merge, Wendel Group takes a stake in Monroe Capital LLC, and Acuity Brands Inc. buys QSC LLC.

  • October 24, 2024

    LinkedIn Hit With €310M Irish Fine For Targeted Ad Practices

    Ireland's data protection commission has handed down a €310 million ($335 million) penalty against LinkedIn for allegedly failing to have an adequate legal basis for processing European Union users' personal data for targeted advertising purposes, the regulator announced Thursday.

Expert Analysis

  • What The SEC Liquidity Risk Management Amendments Entail

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    Fund managers should be cognizant of the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission's recent changes to certain reporting requirements and guidance related to open-end fund liquidity risk management programs, and update their filing systems if need be, says Rachael Schwartz at Sullivan & Worcester.

  • It's No Longer Enough For Firms To Be Trusted Advisers

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    Amid fierce competition for business, the transactional “trusted adviser” paradigm from which most firms operate is no longer sufficient — they should instead aim to become trusted partners with their most valuable clients, says Stuart Maister at Strategic Narrative.

  • Service Agreement Lessons From July's Global Tech Outage

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    The worldwide outages recently caused by Crowdstrike Holdings' misconfigured software update highlight the need to evaluate potential IT vendors, negotiate certain service agreement terms, and review existing agreements and diligence forms to help prevent future disruptions and mitigate the fallout should one occur, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Calif. Bill, NTIA Report Illustrate Open-Model AI Safety Debate

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    The National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s balanced recommendations for preventing misuse of open artificial intelligence models, contrasted with a more aggressive California bill, demonstrate an evolving regulatory debate about balancing democratic access to this powerful new technology against potential risks to the public, say Stuart Meyer and Fredrick Tsang at Fenwick.

  • Complying With FTC's Final Rule On Sham Online Reviews

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    The Federal Trade Commission's final rule on deceptive acts and practices in online reviews and testimonials is effective Oct. 21, and some practice tips can help businesses avert noncompliance risks, say Airina Rodrigues and Jonathan Sandler at Brownstein Hyatt.

  • Opinion

    A Fuzzy Label With Bite: FTC Must Define Surveillance Pricing

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    The Federal Trade Commission recently issued orders to eight companies — including Mastercard, McKinsey and Chase — seeking information on "surveillance pricing," but the order doesn't explain the term or make the distinction between legal and illegal practices, leaving any company that uses personalized pricing in the dark, says Chris Wlach at Huge.

  • New Employer Liability Risks In Old Ill. Genetic Privacy Law

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    Illinois’ Genetic Information Privacy Act has been litigated very sparsely, but two recent federal court decisions — Taylor v. Union Pacific and McKnight v. United Airlines — holding that preemployment family medical history questions violated the 1998 law may encourage more lawsuits, say Peter Berk and Madison Shepley at Clark Hill.

  • How States Are Approaching AI Workplace Discrimination

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    As legislators across the U.S. have begun addressing algorithmic discrimination in the workplace, attorneys at Reed Smith provide an overview of the status, applicability and provisions of 13 state and local bills.

  • Navigating A Potpourri Of Possible Transparency Act Pitfalls

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    Despite the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's continued release of guidance for complying with the Corporate Transparency Act, its interpretation remains in flux, making it important for companies to understand potentially problematic areas of ambiguity in the practical application of the law, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • The Risks Of Employee Political Discourse On Social Media

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    As election season enters its final stretch and employees increasingly engage in political speech on social media, employers should beware the liability risks and consider policies that negotiate the line between employees' rights and the limits on those rights, say Bradford Kelley and James McGehee at Littler.

  • A Preview Of AI Priorities Under The Next President

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    For the first time in a presidential election, both of the leading candidates and their parties have been vocal about artificial intelligence policy, offering clues on the future of regulation as AI continues to advance and congressional action continues to stall, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • How Methods Are Evolving In Textualist Interpretations

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    Textualists at the U.S. Supreme Court are increasingly considering new methods such as corpus linguistics and surveys to evaluate what a statute's text communicates to an ordinary reader, while lower courts even mull large language models like ChatGPT as supplements, says Kevin Tobia at Georgetown Law.

  • Finding Coverage For Online Retail Privacy Class Actions

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    Following recent court rulings interpreting state invasion of privacy and electronic surveillance statutes triggering a surge in the filing of privacy class actions against online retailers, companies should examine their various insurance policies, including E&O and D&O, for defense coverage of these claims, says Alison Gaske at Gilbert LLP.

  • The State Law Landscape After Justices' Social Media Ruling

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    Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent NetChoice ruling on social media platforms’ First Amendment rights, it’s still unclear if state content moderation laws are constitutional, leaving online operators to face a patchwork of regulation, and the potential for the issue to return to the high court, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Old Employment Law Principles Can Answer New AI Concerns

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    Despite growing legal and regulatory concerns about how artificial intelligence tools may affect employment decisions and worker rights, companies should take comfort in knowing that familiar principles of employment law and established compliance regimes can still largely address these new twists on old questions, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

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