What are the privacy limits when users give permission for an app to access their smartphone’s microphone? A purported class action filed last week by LaTisha Satchell (a New York resident) against the Golden State Warriors (the first NBA franchise employing such an app), Signal360 (the New York-based licensor of…
Internet & Social Media Law Blog
How Older Cybersecurity Lapses Can Give Birth to Future Data Breaches
Since my last post on the subject (“LinkedIn Grapples with the Ripples of a 2012 Data Breach”), there have been several developments related to LinkedIn’s 2012 data breach. First, in May, LinkedIn announced it has finished the process of invalidating passwords at risk, specifically LinkedIn accounts that had not reset…
News of Note for the Internet-Minded – Pokémon Go Edition
Even as the initial furor surrounding the release of developer Niantic’s Pokémon-themed ap has subsided, the issues raised by the mass embrace of the augmented reality-flavored game continue to merit attention from lawmakers, games makers and players alike. Here are a few of the recent stories involving Pikachu, Charizard and…
Are There Phishing Holes in Your Cybersecurity Insurance?
A robust cybersecurity strategy involves sophisticated, overlapping protections. Along with up-to-date technology, well-trained employees and vigilant IT professionals, comprehensive insurance coverage is an often necessary ingredient of any protective “moat” shielding a company from damaging cyberattacks. Yet does a company’s cyber insurance package actually protect it from one of the…
Pokémon Go and the Evolving Arena of Clickwrap Enforcement against Children
According to the official Pokémon website, “kids all over the world have been discovering the enchanting world of Pokémon [for over 15 years].” Not surprisingly, many of us who used to be kids in the 15+ years are playing Pokémon Go, but who would have expected nearly 4 of every…
Algorithms and the Perception of Bias
On Saturday, July 23, Facebook acknowledged its anti-spam systems had briefly and accidentally blocked links to WikiLeaks files containing internal Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails. WikiLeaks had released 19,000 leaked documents from the DNC containing communication between Democratic Party officials on Friday, July 22. The following day, people tweeted screenshots…
How Does One Insure an Autonomous Vehicle?
Transformative technologies do not just change their own industries—they cause a ripple effect throughout adjacent, more mature sectors. Just as the sudden, mass embrace of augmented reality in Pokémon Go opens up a number of liability concerns, so, too, will the advent of autonomous vehicles (the embrace of which is…
Pokémon Go Ushers in a New, Augmented World of Legal Liability Concerns
We predicted last year that 2016 would be the year of Pokémon. This prophecy came true last week within just two days of the Pokémon Go launch. The location-based augmented reality mobile game/app quickly surpassed Tinder in daily users and neared Twitter’s totals (and as of yesterday, surpassed them), with…
Warner Bros.’s “Paid to Play” Disclosures Draw FTC Action
Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) went after Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. for not clearly representing that several digital influencers were paid as part of a marketing campaign for the video game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. (See our prior posts on FTC enforcement of its disclosure…
News of Note for the Internet-Minded – 7/7/16
Snapchat announces a seismic shift, Microsoft looks to DNA for your long-term storage needs, and authorities try to get out ahead of some of the predictable consequences of Pokémon Go’s arrival. (Please look where you’re walking as you try to catch them all.) Oculus’ haptic project looks to provide glove-free…