Month: November 2022

News

Google agreed to pay $392 million to 40 states — the largest multi-state privacy settlement in U.S. history — in response to allegations that it broke consumer protection laws by tracking individuals through their devices after location tracking had been turned off. A Google spokesman indicated it no longer tracks individuals in this manner, and that it now allows individuals to use Google Maps incognito.

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Apple for violating the California Invasion of Privacy Act by tracking consumers in mobile apps even with iPhone privacy settings indicating tracking is off.

Two Massachusetts citizens filed a class action lawsuit in federal court alleging the Massachusetts health department installed COVID-19 tracking software on over one million Android phones without users’ consent.

Recent departures from Twitter include CISO Lea Kissner, chief privacy officer Damien Kieran, and chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty, raising questions on whether it complies with the GDPR’s requirement to have a chief data protection officer.

National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo announced a greater focus on employee surveillance, requesting regional personnel “vigorously” enforce existing doctrine and proposing “a new framework for protecting employees from intrusive or abusive forms of electronic monitoring and automated management that interfere with Section 7 activity.”

Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) submitted a question to the European Court of Justice regarding whether consumer protection authorities can bring data protection claims against Meta on behalf of data subjects.

The United Kingdom is pushing to develop a new data privacy law that might deviate from the GDPR, which will reportedly address the adequacy agreement with the EU that allows UK-EU data flows.

Events

On Thursday, Nov. 24 from 9am to 10am EST, Guarini Global Law and Tech Executive Director Thomas Strein presented a keynote presentation at Digital Legal Talks 2022 on “The Future of European Data Law.”

On Tuesday, Nov. 29 from 12pm to 1pm EST, Winston Wenyan Ma, an adjunct professor of law at the NYU School of Law, will present a U.S.-Asia Law Institute talk on “The Future of US-China Tech Relations: Blockchain, Crypto, and Central Bank Digital Currency.”

(Compiled by Student Fellow Cooper Aspegren)

News

A class action lawsuit was filed against Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI alleging large-scale copyright violations in the companies’ GitHub Copilot AI-powered coding assistant.

Australia’s Labor Party introduced a privacy bill including significantly increased penalties for data breaches and an amendment to the Privacy Act extending jurisdiction to foreign organizations doing business in Australia.

The Markup published an investigative piece covering the use of tracking data by political campaigns. 

A new report by independent researchers found that Apple’s own iPhone apps, like the App Store and Apple Music, continue to collect detailed user data even when users turn off tracking settings.

Companies across the tech industry, including Meta, Twitter, Lyft, and Stripe, laid off thousands of workers in the face of an expected recession.

Events

USC Gould professor Erin Miller is giving a talk at Cornell Tech this Thursday, 11/10 about the application of the First Amendment to private actors.

(Compiled by Student Fellow Stephanie Chen)

News

FTC brought an action agaisnt Chegg, the education technology provider.  Responding to their allegedly lax data security practices, the FTC proposed requiring the company to bolster its data security and limiting the data that the company can collect and retain, among a number of other user protections. 

The Center for Democracy and Technology released a report finding that women of color political candidates are more than twice as likely to be subject to mis- and disinformation campaigns and are most likely to be targeted with online and violent abuse. 

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) published findings on how the D.C. government uses automated decision-making systems.  Examining many of the automated decision-makers that these city agencies use, EPIC assesses the goals they work towards, and how they take action toward them.  

Events 

This Friday, November 4^th, Silicon Flatirons is hosting a conference on transparency and the tech sector.  The conference will convene a wide range of opinions on tech transparency and prompt discussions on how to take the field forward. 

Guarini Law and Tech is hosting a panel next week on Wednesday, November 9^th from 5:00-7:30 PM.  Alumni and friends of NYU Law will share their experience working in technology and data law, both at law firms and as in-house counsel.  After the panel discussion, NYU Law students will be able to ask questions and join the panelists for a networking reception.  Complete this form to RSVP.

(Compiled by Student Fellow Justin Lee)