In August 2020, Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist whom the Wall Street Journal calls “the man Vladimir Putin fears most”, was medically evacuated to Berlin after being poisoned by a nerve agent that was linked to Russia’s Federal Security Service. He returned to Russia in January 2021 and was arrested…
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…
Last week, the firm was quoted in a Bustle story, entitled A Fake Porn App Lets People Put Celebrities’ Faces In Videos & Here’s Why It’s So Dangerous. The article discussed the legal implications of a new phenomenon revealed in a recent Motherboard’s article of new applications using artificial intelligence for face-swapping celebrity faces onto porn performers’…
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Under the California Online Privacy Protection Act (Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 22575-22579), websites or online services collecting personally identifiable information from California consumers shall “conspicuously post its privacy policy”. There are a number of requirements of such a policy, including that it addresses how its responds to Web browser “do not track” signals. While…
A class action lawsuit has been filed claiming that the Indianapolis Colts mobile app “systematically and surreptitiously intercepting consumers’ oral communications.” “With the microphone activated, the app listens to and records all audio within range — including consumer conversations.” The app was designed by Yinzcam Inc. and has the functionality to direct fans in the stadium to…
A fascinating New York Times article and video explain how China’s walled-gardens like WeChat could be the future of the Internet for the west. But its not just the New York Times, in June Bloomberg wrote about Life in the People’s Republic of WeChat and this week’s Economist has a feature WeChat’s world: China’s WeChat shows the way…
InMobi, the mobile ad platform that Fast Company recently ranked as 15th among The World’s Most Innovative Companies, has a new trophy – an FTC Consent decree and a $4 million civil penalty (all but $950,000 was suspended). According to the Federal Trade Commission complaint, even if a consumer had denied access to the location API on their…
This week the Federal Trade Commission will have a banquet and symposium celebrating its 100th anniversary (with more than 20 past and current FTC officials). The FTC Act, which gave the agency the power to regulate “unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce,”…
Mobile App Vulnerability Leads to Consent Decree Fandango and Credit Karma have agreed to consent decrees with the FTC to settle charges that they misrepresented the security of their mobile apps and failed to secure the transmission of millions of consumers’ sensitive personal information from their mobile apps. The FTC alleged that, despite their security…
ROBERT ELLIS SMITH RETURNS TO CLBR TO DISCUSS PRIVACY AND MOBILE APPS With California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ enforcement action filed against Delta for its lack of privacy policy for its mobile app and the FTC indicating that it is investigating mobile compliance with children’s privacy protections, mobile privacy has become the hot domestic internet…
California AG Makes Privacy Recommendation for Mobile Apps California Attorney General Kamala Harris released a report “Privacy on the Go: Recommendations for the Mobile Ecosystem,” urging mobile app developers to adopt fair privacy practices such as (i) avoiding collecting personally identifiable data not needed for app’s basic functionality, (ii) make the app’s privacy policy accessible…
FEBRUARY 6TH ON CYBER LAW AND BUSINESS REPORT 1PM EASTERN/ 10 AM PACIFIC Segment 1: Mobile Privacy Initiatives Jules Polonetsky Director/Co-Chair Future of Privacy Forum Segment 2: EU and US: A Growing Continental Divide on Privacy? Phil Lee Field Fisher Waterhouse Jules Polonetsky has served since November 2008 as Co-chair and Director of the Future…
California law is clear that mobile apps collecting personal information need privacy policies, and that the users of those apps deserve to know what is being done with their personal information. — California Attorney General Kamala Harris on bringing first lawsuit for failure to include privacy policy with mobile app. The Law: California Online Privacy…
Cyber Report 