By Porter Wright on To start the year, New York lawmakers reintroduced the Biometric Privacy Act – Assembly Bill 27. The bill closely mirrors Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which has spawned compliance changes and hundreds of class action lawsuits, with some resulting in multimillion dollar settlements.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Companies doing business in Illinois are keenly aware of the recent flood of lawsuits alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). They know that BIPA lawsuits can be costly to defend. And they understand that if they are found to have mishandled the retention, collection, disclosure or destruction of biometric information, they … Continue Reading
By Jack Beeler on The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has released its 2018 annual report, which includes statistics that internet-enabled theft, wire fraud and exploitation were responsible for a staggering $2.7 billion in financial losses in 2018. If you are involved in transactional work, this can happen to you. Reports detail an increasingly common story of wire fraud accompanying … Continue Reading
By Jill Okun on Motivated by the unprecedented spike in automotive fatalities in 2015, mostly caused by human error, the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), has embraced self-driving cars as a means to significantly reduce motor vehicle crashes. In so doing, the DOT stands behind developing a regulatory framework which … Continue Reading
By Brad Hughes and Porter Wright on On June 21, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released long-awaited new rules for commercial, non-hobbyist small unmanned aircraft (sUAS) operations. The FAA’s press release about the new rules in part 107 of the FAA regulations is available here. FAA’s three-page fact sheet about the new regulations can be found at this link, and a 53-page … Continue Reading
By Donna Ruscitti on Porter Wright continues its tradition of providing cutting-edge information about how technology affects your business with the 2016 Technology Seminar Series, beginning May 18. This year’s sessions are: May 18: Big Data, Data Analytics & the Law 2016: What Your Company Needs to Know About the Evolution of the Next Big Thing “Big data” is one of today’s … Continue Reading
By Aaron Shank on Mobile wireless service is ubiquitous. Growth of domestic mobile data use is astronomical with growth rates expected to increase by as much as 20 times over the next five years. 4G LTE is lighting up our homes, schools, and workplaces. And 5G, we are told, is right around the corner. Growth requires infrastructure – new sites … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This article is excerpted from research conducted by Emily R. Taylor, one of Porter Wright’s talented 2015 summer law clerks. Emily will enter her third year at Vanderbilt University Law School in the fall. Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in places of public accommodation, … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In trademark infringement litigation, the critical and usually pivotal issue is whether there is a likelihood of confusion between two allegedly similar marks. Eliminating a defendant’s ability to defend against an allegation of likelihood of confusion can be tantamount to establishing liability against the defendant. Yet, that will be the situation for many defendants following … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Canada’s anti-spam law (CASL), enforced by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), requires that businesses and organizations secure a recipient’s express or implied consent before sending “commercial electronic messages” (CEM). A CEM is any electronic message that encourages participation in a commercial activity, such as a coupon or message about a promotion of the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on A few weeks ago, more than 1,000 academics, legal practitioners and government officials convened for one of Europe’s premier privacy law events: the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference in Brussels, Belgium. Europeans dominated this crowd but a significant number of participants from other countries, including the U.S., made this a truly international gathering. I … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision provides “a very clear and straightforward message” to law enforcement: You must obtain a warrant to search the contents of any cell phone. Kelly Johnson provides a review of the court’s decision in his article, “Privacy Comes at a Cost — Warrant Required for Cell Phone Search,” published by … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The availability of third-party keyboard apps on the new iOS 8 operating system for Apple mobile devices created quite a buzz. It also served as a reminder for any developer of apps that transmit data or communications from a user’s host device to external servers to be cognizant of the risks associated with such data … Continue Reading
By Brian Hall on Back in the 1960’s, legendary bluesman Muddy Waters wrote a song called “You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had.” Now, it is Sony Pictures that is singing the blues, as damages continue to mount following the cyber attack on its data networks just before Thanksgiving. A shadowy group with possible connections to the North … Continue Reading
By Donna Ruscitti on Companies have moved in droves to allow hosting partners to store their mission critical applications — along with valuable business information, trade secrets and customer data — in the cloud. Saving money is great, but do you know where all of your data is at all times, and, more importantly, how secure is it? Every … Continue Reading
By Brian Hall on Saman Rajaee was a salesman for Design Tech Homes. He used his personal iPhone to connect to his employer’s Microsoft Exchange Server, which allowed him to access his work-related email, contacts and calendar from his phone. Design Tech did not have a BYOD policy. When Rajaee’s employment terminated, Design Tech remotely wiped his phone, which … Continue Reading
By Donna Ruscitti on Our colleagues at Employer Law Report recently discussed how President Obama’s immigration reform measures could affect tech companies whose workforces include non-U.S. residents with H-1B visas. According to a memo from the Department of Homeland Security, the visa application and approval process may become easier for employers and their highly skilled workers. Read more… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on There’s exciting news in the world of cryptocurrency, the exchange medium that uses cryptography to secure the transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin, created in 2009, was the first cryptocurrency and remains the most popular, though numerous other cryptocurrencies, such as Coinye, have emerged in the interim. Where can you find cryptocurrency? … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On July 7-11, 2014, a group of 25 privacy lawyers met in a historic building overlooking the Keizersgracht, one of Amsterdam’s most beautiful canals, and spent five days learning about U.S. privacy law, European data protection law, and the complex interactions between them. The setting was the Summer Course on Privacy Law and Policy, presented … Continue Reading
By Donna Ruscitti on Our colleagues Jay Levine and Jason Startling recently wrote an interesting post on Porter Wright’s FedSec Law Blog. Though the article covers some interesting international and antitrust issues, the case Jay and Jason focus on is one that many in the technology industry may wish to follow. With technology products in particular, more and more … Continue Reading
By Donna Ruscitti and Porter Wright on The Florida Information Protection Act of 2014, aimed at strengthening Florida’s data breach notification law, goes into effect tomorrow, July 1, 2014. The act contains major changes to Florida’s existing data breach notification statute and makes it one of the toughest in the nation. Shortened notice period For example, notice to consumers must be given within … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Have you ever received an email from LinkedIn with the invitation: “I’d like to add you to my professional network.”? If you did not respond, did you receive a reminder email a week later? And another one a few weeks after that? If you did, or if you were one of the LinkedIn users who … Continue Reading
By Donna Ruscitti on Porter Wright continues its tradition of providing cutting-edge information about how technology affects your business with the 2014 Technology Seminar Series, beginning June 18. This year’s sessions are: Social media in litigation: a shield and a sword June 18 The worlds of social media and litigation have collided. Social media evidence is used in employment … Continue Reading
By Brian Hall on Two recent decisions – one from the federal district court in New Jersey and one from a federal Administrative Law Judge – potentially will have significant impact on the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) enforcement of business’s data security obligations. (Read more about these cases here and here.) FTC v. Wyndam Worldwide In FTC v. Wyndham Worldwide … Continue Reading
