News

The New Mexico Supreme Court cautioned judges to “avoid both impropriety and its appearance in their use of social media”. Although the case concerns an asserted violation of the Confrontation Clause, it is interesting because Defendant also raised the issue of social media posts made by the district court judge during the pendency of the trial. […]

On September 12, 2016, an Illinois District Court ruled that the publication of online attorney directories is fully protected under the First Amendment and does not violate an Illinois law that prohibits the use of someone’s identity for commercial purposes without permission. In this putative class action, Plaintiff alleged that defendant violated the Illinois Right […]

The ICO published a guidance to help data controllers fully understand their obligations and promote good practice for the case in which the user of the device is not the data controller. Bring your own device (BYOD) raises a number of data protection concerns. Therefore: It is crucial that the data controller ensures that all […]

  On September 23, 2016, Ronald Schwartz, a New York resident, filed a case and sought class-action certification on behalf of himself and other users against defendant Yahoo. According to the complaint, the Company “failed to adequately protect its users or itself from data breach”. The claim was filed after, on September 22, 2016, Yahoo issued […]

On July 14, 2016, the Second Circuit held that U.S. law does not authorize a warrant against a U.S.-based service provider for the seizure of e-mails stored in Ireland. In December 2013, a New York district court issued a warrant ordering Microsoft to produce all emails and private information associated with a certain account hosted by […]

On September 20, 2016, NYU Center for Cybersecurity hosted Follow the Money: Fighting Cybercrime in the Digital Underworld. The program was very engaging and the panelists brought to the table expertise in different fields to discuss the reality of cybercrime. Their conclusion was that cyber-criminals remain individuals motivated by money, hence the title of the lecture. Deterring […]

On September 15, 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“ECJ”) hold that the operator of a shop who offers a Wi-Fi network free of charge to the public is not liable for copyright infringements committed by users of that network. [However, he/she may be required to password-protect her network] in order to […]

  On September 13, 2016, Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a new Cybersecurity Regulation to Protect Consumers and Financial Institutions. The first-in-the-nation proposal aims to protect consumer data and financial systems from cyber-attacks of terrorist organizations and other criminal enterprises. The Regulation requires banks, insurance companies, and other financial services institutions to maintain a cybersecurity program […]

On August 25, 2016, WhatsApp issued a statement informing its users that the application’s terms and privacy policy was updated, which was also a consequence of WhatsApp’s joining Facebook. Allegedly WhatsApp wanted to modify the privacy policy to allow users to “communicate with businesses”.  WhatsApp notified all users –with the latest supported versions of the […]

Interesting blog authored by Bart Huffman and Charles Salmon of Locke Lord LLP (see here) discusses some legal issues generated by cyber-security incidents. The blog specifically deals with the issue of whether non-public written records concerning the breach (e.g. minutes of meetings, communications among the response team, etc.) may be privileged or protected under the work product doctrine. For more information, […]