Author: Caitlin Wilmot Published: December 4th, 2020 IBM Security (the company’s cybersecurity division) has recently discovered a global phishing campaign targeting organizations associated with the critical coronavirus vaccine distribution chain. The division’s “X-Force,” created at the onset of the pandemic to monitor cyber threats against vaccine developers and distributors, released a report on Thursday
Read More Author: Jennifer B. Maisel, Christopher Ott Published: December 15th, 2020 Pursuant to Section 6(b) of the FTC Act and a December 11, 2020, resolution of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) entitled “Resolution Directing use of Compulsory Process to Collect Information Regarding Social Media and Video Streaming Service Providers’ Privacy Practices,” the FTC has now
Read More Author: Jenny L. Colgate Published: January 6th, 2021 Just before the Christmas holidays, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued proposed rulemaking entitled “Requirements for Certain Transactions Involving Convertible Virtual Currency or Digital Assets.” The proposed regulations seek to “require banks and money service businesses (“MSBs”) to submit reports, keep
Read More Author: Jenny L. Colgate Published: January 12th, 2021 Facebook, the parent company to WhatsApp, is reporting near-record low revenue growth. Thus, presumably in an effort to monetize WhatsApp more heavily, WhatsApp recently announced changes to its privacy policy: as of February 8, 2021, all WhatsApp users (except those that live in Europe) must agree
Read More Author: Caitlin Wilmot Published: January 14th, 2021 On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a settlement with Everalbum, Inc., the California-based developer of a photo app called “Ever,” with regard to allegations that the company deceived consumers about the use of its facial recognition technology and its data retention practices. Click here to view
Read More Author: Jennifer B. Maisel Published: January 20th, 2021 Website operators can consider a host of potential legal claims against entities that scrape their sites’ content without authorization, such as breach of a well-crafted terms of service agreement, copyright infringement, trespass, conversion, common law misappropriation, unfair competition, violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,
Read More Author: Jenny L. Colgate Published: January 27th, 2021 A recent article from CNN reported on SpaceX and Amazon sparring over their competing satellite-based internet business. The article reports that at the center of the dispute is “a recent attempt by SpaceX to modify its license for Starlink, a massive constellation of internet satellites, of
Read More Author: Jenny L. Colgate, Caitlin Wilmot Published: February 3rd, 2021 While Europe is leveraging hefty fines against violators of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month on whether the FTC – the chief federal agency on privacy policy and enforcement since the 1970s – lacks
Read More Author: Jenny L. Colgate Published: February 8th, 2021 In December 2020, Apple started requiring Apps to display mandatory labels that provide a graphic, easy-to-digest version of their privacy policies. They are being called “privacy nutrition labels,” presumably a reference to the mandatory FDA-required “Nutrition Facts” labels that have appeared on food since 1990. In
Read More Author: Jenny L. Colgate Published: October 16th, 2020 Jenny L. Colgate, of Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck PC, discusses the lawsuit filed against Amazon for another BIPA violation, this time for a violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Protection Act (BIPA). Colgate notes that any company conducting COVID-related employee scans should be aware of
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