For those of you keeping score at home, it is Max Schrems 2, Facebook 0. On July 16, 2020, thirty-three-year-old Austrian lawyer and privacy advocate, Max Schrems beat Facebook in the European Court of Justice . . . again. In Schrems I in 2015, the ECJ invalidated the US-EU Safe Harbor framework, and last week…
On Wednesday, a hacker accessed 130 prominent Twitter accounts including that of Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and the most followed Twitter account on the planet – Barack Obama – to promote a bitcoin scam. This force Twitter to shut down verified Twitter users’ accounts for…
The Los Angeles Press Club announced the finalists for the 62nd Southern California Journalism Awards and I am “moooved” to report that Cyber Report has been nominated for the 10th time, this time for best individual blog for my piece on Six Things to Know About Devin Nunes’ Bizarre Lawsuit Against Twitter and a Tweeting Cow.…
Last year, I was fortunate enough to be invited to join ten other stellar participants that included other attorneys, prosecutors, law enforcement, academics and civil society representatives for a two-day brainstorming session sponsored by the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (working with RTI International and the RAND Corporation) on combating Technologically Facilitated Abuse…
This week has witnessed increased political attacks against Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA 230) by the Trump Justice Department and federal legislation seeking to “reform it” and the creation of a new association to assist professionals dealing with the many issues involved in content moderation under CDA 230. CDA 230…
Throughout the Trump presidency, there have been calls for Twitter to act on the President’s tweets that were in apparent violation of its terms of service such as past tweets threatening nuclear war against North Korea and a photoshopped video showing him beating up CNN. Tweets by Trump and other world leaders led Twitter to…
Episodes 8 and 9 for Internet Traffic Kings have dropped. Episode 8 features Oliver Kenyon who built the world’s largest affiliate community online and now runs LandingPageGuys.com. He shares his Top 5 Tips for New Marketers and uncovers his coveted internal blueprint. The ultimate checklist of conversions principles! You do NOT want to miss this…
With the regulations for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CaCPA) still yet to be finalized, a new sweeping amendment is likely to be on the November ballot. Mactaggart Returns In 2017, San Francisco Bay area housing developer Alastair Mactaggart launched Californians for Consumer Privacy and qualified the CaCPA for the November 2018 ballot. As drafted,…
In 2018, the California Supreme Court’s Dynamex decision redefined the definition of employee v. independent contractor through an “ABC test” followed by many states. Last September, California Governor Newsom signed AB-5 which codified the Dynamex decision and went into effect on January 1, 2020. The titans of the “Gig Economy” have fought AB-5 throughout the process and have…
Episodes 5 and 6 for Internet Traffic Kings have dropped. Episode 5 features industry veteran Ian Fernando. In this episode, I discuss COVID scams. Episode 6 features Peter Day of Peter Day Marketing Agency. Rick Bennick, President of Brand Ventures, and Brandedoffers.com a leading online brand incubator. In this episode, I discuss the controversy surrounding…
On April 2, 2020, I moderated a webinar on “Cyber Security Basics for the Work from Home Economy,” for the California Lawyers Association. After the webinar, my panelists did a Zoom discussion on the same topic with this version being more consumer-focused. You can check that version out below.
Last fall, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling enjoining LinkedIn from blocking hiQ from scraping data from its site finding that hiQ’s scraping of data from LinkedIn users’ public profiles did not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”). In Sandig v. Barr, academic researchers who intend to test whether employment websites…
Episodes 3 and 4 for Internet Traffic Kings have dropped. Episode 3 features Scott Richter, founder of Media Breakaway who now operates The Big Jackpot slot channel on YouTube. In this episode, I discuss cybersecurity issues relating to working at home during the COVID crisis and the COVID scams. Episode 4 features Rick Bennick, President…
The FTC announced that its coronavirus-related fraud complaints have doubled in the last week to 7,800. The top categories of coronavirus-related fraud complaints include travel and vacation related reports about cancellations and refunds, reports about problems with online shopping, mobile texting scams, and government and business imposter scams. In fraud complaints that mentioned the coronavirus,…
In 2009, WebmasterRadio.fm launched a new show “InBoxed” with host Jon Fondy and Rapid Response Marketing CEO Kevin De Vincenzi at AffCon in Denver. The show focused on issues in the emerging field of affiliate marketing. I was a guest on that original show and a regular on that show thereafter discussing legal issues impacting…
Cyber Report 