Cybersecurity & Privacy

  • January 08, 2025

    FCC Hikes Fines For Failing To Comply With Robocall Rules

    The Federal Communications Commission unveiled rules Wednesday to increase the penalties that telecommunication companies could face if they don't comply with their obligation to send information to a central database that tracks anti-robocall compliance.

  • January 08, 2025

    PowerPlan To Pay $24M, Ending Rival's Monopoly Claims

    Roper Technologies subsidiary PowerPlan Inc. has agreed to pay $24 million in a settlement with a rival firm formed by former employees who said the utility software giant tried to lock them out of the market by threatening litigation against them and prospective clients.

  • January 08, 2025

    Epic Gets Backing For Google App Store Changes

    Epic Games has received support from federal antitrust enforcers, Microsoft and others at the Ninth Circuit as the game developer fights Google's bid to appeal an order forcing the tech giant to loosen its policies surrounding the distribution of apps on Android devices.

  • January 08, 2025

    Rivers Casino Hit With Pa. Suit Over Data Breach

    The owner of Rivers Casino in Philadelphia has been accused of not doing enough to safeguard customers' personal information, which was exposed during a data breach incident last year, according to a new class action filed Wednesday in federal court.

  • January 08, 2025

    CFPB Hit With Industry Suit Over Medical Debt Reporting Rule

    A top trade group for the credit reporting industry has moved to challenge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new rule that would take billions of dollars in medical debt off credit reports, accusing the agency of overreach in a lawsuit filed in Texas federal court.

  • January 08, 2025

    H&R Block To Pay $7M Fine In False Ad Settlement With FTC

    Tax preparation giant H&R Block will pay a $7 million fine to help customers harmed by what the Federal Trade Commission called its deceptive advertising practices and make it easier for customers to downgrade to cheaper products under a settlement with the agency announced Wednesday.

  • January 08, 2025

    Google Still Has To Face Users' Mobile App Privacy Suit

    Google is facing the prospect of another trial, this time over allegations it secretly tracked millions of Google app users' browsing and ad interactions, after a California federal judge rejected the tech giant's bid for summary judgment.

  • January 08, 2025

    Ariz. Tribe Sues Social Media Giants Over Youth Mental Health

    An Apache tribe has hit all the social media giants with a suit in California federal court claiming the companies' platforms are designed to addict young people but have a particularly bad effect on Native American youth, who already face a high risk of depression, addiction and suicide.

  • January 08, 2025

    Mortgage Cos. Fined $20M Over Cybersecurity Breach

    Bayview Asset Management LLC and three affiliates on Wednesday agreed to pay a $20 million fine and improve their cybersecurity programs to settle allegations from 53 state financial regulators that the mortgage companies had deficient cybersecurity practices and didn't fully cooperate with regulators after a 2021 data breach.

  • January 08, 2025

    EU Commission To Pay €400 For Sending IP Address To Meta

    A European Union court ordered the bloc's commission on Wednesday to pay a German citizen €400 ($412) in compensation for operating a website that disclosed his IP address to Meta in breach of its own data regulations — a first for the executive branch.

  • January 07, 2025

    HHS Fines Mass. Health Firm $80K Over Ransomware Attack

    Elgon Information Systems, which provides digital medical record and billing support services, will pay $80,000 over alleged healthcare data protection rule violations following a ransomware attack on its systems in March 2023 that impacted roughly 31,248 customers, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday.

  • January 07, 2025

    'Cyber Trust Mark' To Soon Adorn Smart Devices, Gov't Says

    The makers of internet-connected devices such as home security cameras and voice-activated assistants will soon be able to obtain a label to certify that their products meet certain cybersecurity standards, under a new program officially launched by the Biden administration Tuesday. 

  • January 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Upholds Ore. Ban On Secret Audio Recordings

    A split en banc Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday upheld as constitutional an Oregon law prohibiting secret audio recordings of people's conversations, ruling in a published opinion that the statute was narrowly tailored to Oregon's significant interest in ensuring its residents know when their conversations are recorded, even in public.

  • January 07, 2025

    Hacked LA Law Firm Hill Farrer Beats Suit Over Cyberattack

    A Los Angeles judge Tuesday tossed a proposed class action against Hill Farrer & Burrill LLP alleging it failed to stop a preventable cyberattack carried out by hackers and said he would not allow for the complaint to be amended because the case law cited by the lead plaintiff is deficient.

  • January 07, 2025

    FCC Urged To Revisit New Robocall Penalty Plan

    Voice providers are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to ease robocall reporting requirements, with one prominent telecom trade group calling a potential agency proposal to fine companies $10,000 for submitting false or inaccurate compliance reports "unnecessarily punitive."

  • January 07, 2025

    H&R Block Accused Of Negligence In Data Breach

    An H&R Block user who claims cybercriminals disseminated his personal information on the dark web, after a data breach at the tax preparation firm, accused the company in a proposed class action of failing to properly protect consumer data.

  • January 07, 2025

    Google Avoids Data Destruction Sanctions In Ad Privacy Suit

    A California federal judge has declined to sanction and hold Google in contempt for purportedly intentionally destroying key evidence in a putative class action claiming the company's ad auction practices violate privacy rights, saying the consumers' motion came too late after fact discovery closed.

  • January 07, 2025

    Top Groups Lobbying The FCC

    The Federal Communications Commission heard from advocates more than 50 times in December on issues ranging from prison phone rates to the use of artificial intelligence in text messages, shared use of the airwaves, marketing consent rules and more.

  • January 07, 2025

    Didi Investor Wants To Be New Leader Of Regulatory Suit

    A Didi Global Inc. investor asked Tuesday to sub in as lead plaintiff in a proposed class action claiming the Chinese ride-hailing giant misrepresented the risks of a disciplinary crackdown from the Chinese government over alleged data security violations, as the suit's current leader plans to withdraw from the litigation.

  • January 07, 2025

    States Push For Jury Trial In Google Ad Tech Case

    State enforcers accusing Google of monopolizing key digital advertising technology have urged a Texas federal court to reject Google's bid to have the case decided by a judge, saying the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Jarkesy decision confirms the right to a jury trial.

  • January 07, 2025

    Judge Looks To Finally Resolve Mass. 'Right To Repair' Suit

    A long-stalled fight over Massachusetts' expanded "right to repair" law requiring open access to vehicle telematics software appears to be on a fast track after a new judge took over the case and said Tuesday she plans to rule in the near future.

  • January 07, 2025

    Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Special Counsel Report

    A Florida federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the publication of a report by special counsel Jack Smith regarding his two now-dismissed prosecutions of Donald Trump, after lawyers for the president-elect said Smith was trying to continue a political crusade now that he can no longer pursue criminal charges.

  • January 07, 2025

    CFPB Accuses Experian Of 'Sham' Dispute Investigations

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday sued credit reporting giant Experian in California federal court, alleging it conducts shoddy investigations into consumer-flagged reporting errors and allows previously deleted errors to reappear.

  • January 06, 2025

    Trump Selects Long Island Judge For EDNY's Top Prosecutor

    President-elect Donald Trump, who was born in Queens, has picked a Long Island state court judge to serve as the next U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, according to an announcement made Monday on Truth Social.

  • January 06, 2025

    9th Circ. Urged To Extend Freeze On Calif. Social Media Law

    Tech trade group NetChoice is pressing the Ninth Circuit to stop California from beginning enforcement of a new social media addiction law on Feb. 1, arguing that the lower court "flouted" precedent when it refused to find that restricting minors' access to personalized feeds violates the First Amendment.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • Open Questions In Unsettled Geofence Warrant Landscape

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    The Fourth and Fifth Circuits recently reached radically divergent conclusions about the constitutionality of geofence warrants, creating an uncertain landscape in which defendants should assert and preserve the full range of conventional Fourth Amendment challenges, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.

  • A Look At 5 States' New Data Privacy Laws

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    With new data privacy laws in Utah, Florida, Texas, Oregon and Montana recently in effect or coming into force this year, state-level enforcement of data privacy creates significant challenges and risks for how businesses interact with employees and consumers, and for companies that provide and use technologies in multiple jurisdictions, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • Antitrust In Retail: Why FTC Is Studying 'Surveillance Pricing'

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    The Federal Trade Commission's decision to study targeted "surveillance pricing" should provide greater clarity into the nature of the data aggregation industry, but also raises several issues, including whether these practices are in fact illegal under any established interpretations of U.S. antitrust law, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Licensing And Protections For Voice Actors In The Age Of AI

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    While two recently enacted California laws and other recent state and federal legislation largely focus on protecting actors and musicians from the unauthorized use of their digital likenesses by generative artificial intelligence systems, the lesser-known community of professional voice actors also stands to benefit, says attorney Scott Mortman.

  • 2 High Court Securities Cases Could Clarify Pleading Rules

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    In granting certiorari in a pair of securities fraud cases against Facebook and Nvidia, respectively, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its intention to align interpretations of the heightened pleading standard under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act amid its uneven application among the circuit courts, say attorneys at V&E.

  • What 2 Key Rulings Mean For Solicitation Under TCPA

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    Two recent rulings from federal district courts in New York and California — each of which came to a different conclusion — bring to light courts' continued focus on and analysis of when an alleged communication constitutes a solicitation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, say Felix Shipkevich and Jessica Livingston at Shipkevich.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Navigating The Complexities Of Cyber Incident Reporting

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    When it comes to cybersecurity incident response plans, the uptick in the number and targets of legal and regulatory actions emphasizes the necessity for businesses to document the facts underlying the assumptions, complexities and obstacles of their decisions during the incident response, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Managing Sanctions Defense Across Multiple Jurisdictions

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    Companies called before multiple regulators to account for the same conduct in this era of increased global sanctions and import-control enforcement should consider national differences in law and policy, and proactively coordinate their responses in certain key areas, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • 4 Ways To Prepare For DOD Cyber Certification Rule

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    Given the U.S. Department of Justice's increased scrutiny of contractor compliance with cybersecurity requirements, it is critical that contractors take certain steps now in response to the U.S. Department of Defense's proposed Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification implementation rule, say Townsend Bourne and Lillia Damalouji at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • Takeaways From Texas AG's Novel AI Health Settlement

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    The Texas attorney general's recent action against a health tech company marks another step in rapidly proliferating enforcement against artificial intelligence and privacy issues across multiple states, and highlights important risk mitigation considerations for health companies that implement AI systems, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

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