A federal court last week sustained a First Amendment challenge to a Utah law aimed at addressing the use of social media platforms by minors, holding that the law’s proponents failed to demonstrate that the law served a compelling interest or was narrowly tailored.Continue Reading NetChoice Succeeds in Striking Down Utah Social Media Law Under First Amendment
On July 30, 2024, the Texas Attorney General’s Office announced a $1.4 billion settlement of biometric privacy claims brought against Meta arising from Meta’s historical use of facial recognition technology on photographs posted to Facebook’s social media platform.Continue Reading Texas and Meta Settle Biometric Data Litigation for $1.4 Billion
The first half of 2021 saw one of the most significant TCPA rulings in many years as Facebook v. Duguid, 141 S. Ct. 1163 (2021), appeared to settle the long-debated question of what constitutes an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”). But while the Supreme Court’s April ruling was extremely positive for the TCPA defense bar, it by no means brought an end to TCPA claims. Significant cases have continued to yield decisions, including cases that have sought to interpret Facebook. And the state of Florida stepped into the abyss in passing a “mini-TCPA” statute that went into effect earlier this month that regulates telemarketing at the state level, with a much broader definition of the relevant technology. Thus, the TCPA (and related statute) litigation landscape, while upended to some degree, remains unsettled, and we’ll continue to provide our insights. We summarize here developments since our last update, listed by issue category in alphabetical order.
Continue Reading TCPA Turnstile: TCPA cases in a post-Facebook world (TCPA Case Update Vol. 15)
For more than 30 years, the Kansas City Media and the Law Seminar has been at the forefront of important discussions in the media bar. As this year’s committee chair, I may be a bit biased, but I think the focus of the seminar coming up on May 3-4 is one of the most important topics we have tackled to date: The impact of technology, culture, and politics on media freedoms. There’s no doubt that our media and political climate has changed dramatically over the past few years, and technology continues to push the envelope as laws struggle to keep up. It’s fascinating to think that at least half of this year’s panels involve topics that didn’t even exist when this seminar started — things like “social media,” “fake news,” and “Tweets.”
Continue Reading Join Vedder Price at the 31st annual Media and the Law Seminar
Businesses have largely benefitted from the proliferation of mobile devices and text messaging apps that facilitate quick, round-the-clock communications. However, such technologies also make it increasingly difficult to monitor and control the unauthorized distribution of confidential data. On March 30, UK regulators fined a former managing director of Jeffries Group for divulging confidential client information. The banker, Christopher Niehaus, shared confidential information with two friends using WhatsApp, a popular text messaging app. The exposed information included the identity of a Jeffries Group client, the details of a deal involving the client, and the bank’s fee for the transaction. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this story is that the leak was discovered at all. Because data sent on WhatsApp are encrypted and Mr. Niehaus used his personal mobile phone to send the messages, Jeffries Group only viewed the communications—and subsequently informed regulators—after Mr. Niehaus turned his device over to the bank in connection with an unrelated investigation.
Continue Reading Encrypted Messaging Apps Create New Data Privacy Headaches for Employers
In a well-reasoned and encouraging decision to Internet businesses, the Northern District of Illinois recently found that even operating one of the largest, most popular websites in the world is not enough to create personal jurisdiction everywhere the site can be accessed. See Gullen v. Facebook, Inc., Case No. 15-cv-07681 (Jan. 21, 2016