Cybersecurity & Privacy

  • January 15, 2026

    Container Co. Must Face Trimmed Suit Over 2023 Data Breach

    A Georgia federal judge on Thursday found that current and former employees suing a major plastic container manufacturer over a 2023 data breach had adequately alleged a concrete injury traceable to the incident but had failed to sufficiently plead three of their four claims, leaving the dispute to proceed with a single negligence claim intact.

  • January 15, 2026

    Xreal Accuses Smart Glasses Rival Of Patent Infringement

    Chinese-owned smart glasses maker Xreal on Thursday filed a lawsuit in Texas federal court against rival Viture Inc., accusing it of being a latecomer to the market and choosing a "shortcut" of patent infringement with its competing products. 

  • January 15, 2026

    Wash. Anti-Spam Law Not Federally Preempted, Judge Rules

    A Seattle federal judge has shot down Nike Inc.'s effort to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the sportswear giant of sending false or misleading marketing emails to shoppers in Washington, ruling that the state's Commercial Electronic Mail Act is not preempted by federal law.

  • January 15, 2026

    Ex-WebAI Engineers Say Demos Were 'Faked' In Major Deals

    WebAI Inc. turned a blind eye to a company leader who not only targeted two successful technology engineers but imperiled high-stakes deals with Qantas Airways and the U.S. Department of Defense by allowing a "fake demo" and inaccurate presentations, former company engineers have told a North Carolina state court.

  • January 15, 2026

    Senior NY Judge Avoids $273K Fee Bid In Fla. Condo Suit

    A senior New York federal judge's pending appeal of the dismissal of his defamation action against condominium board members means that for now he can avoid their demand for nearly $273,000 in fees and costs, a Florida federal judge has ruled.

  • January 14, 2026

    Call Vendors Skirt Wiretap Suit Over AI Transcription Tool

    An Illinois federal judge has released dental support organization Heartland Dental LLC and its contractor from a proposed class action accusing them of illegally using an artificial intelligence-powered note-taking tool to record and analyze patient calls, finding that they couldn't be held liable because their alleged electronic interceptions were made for legitimate business purposes.

  • January 14, 2026

    Google Ex-Staffer Attys In 'Grave Danger' Of Testimony Misstep

    A California federal judge appeared open Wednesday to letting prosecutors introduce previously suppressed evidence from the FBI's interview with an ex-Google engineer accused of stealing trade secrets, telling defense counsel that their efforts to paint Google and the government as in cahoots raised a "grave danger" he'd allow the evidence.

  • January 14, 2026

    Calif. Again Asks 9th Circ. To Unleash Kids' Privacy Law

    California's attorney general was back before the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday, urging the court to vacate a new preliminary injunction blocking a landmark law requiring tech giants to bolster privacy protections for children, and arguing the lower court wrongly found the entire statute likely implicates the First Amendment.

  • January 14, 2026

    Burns & McDonnell Sued By Ex-Partner Firm Over Seattle Deal

    California-based Certus Cybersecurity launched a lawsuit in Washington state court accusing consulting firm Burns & McDonnell of falling short on business promises and exploiting the city of Seattle's diversity criteria for contractors to score a government deal worth up to $60 million.  

  • January 14, 2026

    University Of Phoenix Must Face Student's Pixel Tracking Suit

    An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday refused to release the University of Phoenix from a proposed class action claiming it uses third party tracking tools to share students' video-viewing behavior with Meta, finding it plausibly alleges that third parties can intercept those communications in real-time directly from students who visit the school's site.

  • January 14, 2026

    FTC Finalizes GM And Onstar Ban On Location Data Sharing

    General Motors and OnStar finalized a non-monetary deal with the Federal Trade Commission Wednesday, agreeing to a five-year ban on disclosing geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies, to end the regulator's allegations the companies didn't get drivers' consent before sharing.

  • January 14, 2026

    Google Inks $8.25M Deal Over Kids' App Data Privacy

    Google has agreed to an $8.25 million settlement that, if approved, will fully resolve a potential class action that children filed in California federal court through their parents, accusing the tech giant of secretly tracking the personal information of children under the age of 13 through child-directed apps.

  • January 14, 2026

    Calif. AG Probes 'Avalanche' Of Grok-Created Sexual Deepfakes

    California is looking into the "avalanche" of nonconsensual sexually explicit materials, including "deepfake" images used to harass women online, that are reportedly being produced by Grok, the chatbot developed by Elon Musk's company xAI Inc., the state's attorney general announced Wednesday.

  • January 14, 2026

    FCC Still Weighing 39% Broadcast Cap, Carr Tells Lawmakers

    The Federal Communications Commission hasn't decided whether the law gives it wiggle room to lift the 39% cap on national audience share controlled by a single broadcast chain, a move that would let Nexstar merge with Tegna, the FCC's chief told lawmakers Wednesday.

  • January 14, 2026

    Miami Man Admits To $250K Zelle Scam In Connecticut

    A Florida man has pled guilty to a conspiracy charge in Connecticut federal court over his role in scams that ripped off victims including Zelle users for more than $250,000, prosecutors said Wednesday.

  • January 14, 2026

    Conn. Credit Union Hit With 2nd Data Breach Class Lawsuit

    Connecticut's Ellafi Federal Credit Union on Wednesday was hit with a second proposed class action over an October data breach that affected more than 17,600 members.

  • January 14, 2026

    Microsoft Calls For Arbitration In Edge Privacy Suit Appeal

    Microsoft told a Washington state appeals court panel Wednesday that a proposed class action claiming secret collection of Edge users' browser data belongs in arbitration, contending a lower state court judge wrongly advanced the litigation after a Washington federal judge sent parallel claims to arbitration.  

  • January 14, 2026

    SG Asks High Court To Reshuffle Sides In AT&T Fine Case

    U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday to realign the parties' designations in a combined case over the Federal Communications Commission's penalty powers after the justices recently granted review.

  • January 14, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Won't Revive Phone Security IP Suit Against Apple

    A California federal judge properly freed Apple from claims that its iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches infringe two cellular security patents, the Federal Circuit said Wednesday.

  • January 14, 2026

    Wilson Sonsini Creates Defense Tech Team, Hires Google Atty

    Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC announced Wednesday that it is launching a defense tech industry group with the hire of a brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve who most recently worked as an enterprise account executive for Google Public Sector's national defense business.

  • January 13, 2026

    Meta Shakes App Users' Location Data Privacy Suit, For Now

    A California federal judge has shut down a proposed class action accusing Meta Platforms Inc. of illegally collecting location data from users of third-party apps that installed the company's tracking software, finding that the plaintiffs hadn't plausibly alleged that Meta knew it didn't have permission to access this data.

  • January 13, 2026

    Google Engineer Cut-And-Pasted To Evade Security, Jury Told

    A Google security manager took the stand Tuesday in the criminal trial of an engineer accused of stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets, testifying that his investigation showed that Linwei Ding evaded Google's internal security systems by cutting and pasting the data in a way that stripped information identifying Google's authorship.

  • January 13, 2026

    Tech, AI Expert Tapped For Calif. Privacy Agency's Board

    A leading expert on data privacy, surveillance and artificial intelligence who has spearheaded major initiatives at UC Law San Francisco and the American Civil Liberties Union has been selected as the latest member of the California Privacy Protection Agency's five-member board.

  • January 13, 2026

    CrowdStrike Beats Investor Fraud Suit Over 2024 Outage

    A Texas federal judge has tossed a shareholder suit against CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. over its massive 2024 outage that downed computers worldwide, finding the plaintiffs failed to adequately plead any misleading statements about steps the cybersecurity company was taking to prevent such a system crash.

  • January 13, 2026

    Wash. Officials Challenge 9th Circ.'s X Corp. Standing Ruling

    A group of current and former Washington state officials urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to review a man's proposed class action accusing X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, of violating a state telephone privacy law, telling justices that allowing the Ninth Circuit's ruling in the case to stand would erode state sovereignty and potentially lead to a circuit split.

Expert Analysis

  • AI Product Safety Insights May Expand Foreseeability

    Author Photo

    Product liability law has long held that companies are responsible for risks they knew about or should have known about — and with AI systems now able to assess and predict hazards during the design process, companies should expect that courts will likely treat such hazards as foreseeable, says Donald Fountain at Clark Fountain.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Educating Your Community

    Author Photo

    Nearly two decades prosecuting scammers and elder fraud taught me that proactively educating the public about the risks they face and the rights they possess is essential to building trust within our communities, empowering otherwise vulnerable citizens and preventing wrongdoers from gaining a foothold, says Roger Handberg at GrayRobinson.

  • Strategies For Merchants As Payment Processing Costs Rise

    Author Photo

    As current economic pressures and rising card processing costs threaten to decrease margins for businesses, retail merchants should consider restructuring how payments are made and who processes them within the evolving legal framework, says Tom Witherspoon at Stinson.

  • Shifting Crypto Landscape Complicates Tornado Cash Verdict

    Author Photo

    Amid shifts in the decentralized finance regulatory landscape, the mixed verdict in the prosecution of Tornado Cash’s founder may represent the high-water mark in a cryptocurrency enforcement strategy from which the U.S. Department of Justice has begun to retreat, say attorneys at Venable.

  • 5 Crisis Lawyering Skills For An Age Of Uncertainty

    Author Photo

    As attorneys increasingly face unprecedented and pervasive situations — from prosecutions of law enforcement officials to executive orders targeting law firms — they must develop several essential competencies of effective crisis lawyering, says Ray Brescia at Albany Law School.

  • Compliance Tips Amid Rising FTC Scrutiny Of Minors' Privacy

    Author Photo

    The Federal Trade Commission has recently rolled out multiple enforcement actions related to children's privacy, highlighting a renewed focus on federal regulation of minors' personal information and the evolving challenges of establishing effective, privacy-protective age assurance solutions, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.

  • Opinion

    It's Time For The Judiciary To Fix Its Cybersecurity Problem

    Author Photo

    After recent reports that hackers have once again infiltrated federal courts’ electronic case management systems, the judiciary should strengthen its cybersecurity practices in line with executive branch standards, outlining clear roles and responsibilities for execution, says Ilona Cohen at HackerOne.

  • Prepping For Website Automatic Opt-Out Signal Mandates

    Author Photo

    Maryland's Online Data Privacy Act, which, along with a growing number of U.S. states, requires businesses to offer mechanisms in their privacy policies or online interfaces to allow individuals to opt out of data collection, marks a new frontier in consumer privacy, raising both technical and legal risks, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.

  • Tips For Cos. Crafting Enforceable Online Arbitration Clauses

    Author Photo

    Recent rulings from the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California indicate that courts are carefully examining the enforceability of online arbitration clauses, so businesses should review the design of their websites and consider specific language next to the "purchase" button, say attorneys at DTO Law.

  • 7 Lessons From The Tractor Supply CCPA Enforcement Action

    Author Photo

    The California Privacy Protection Agency's recent enforcement action targeting Tractor Supply for alleged violations of the California Consumer Privacy Act provides critical insights into the compliance areas that remain a priority for the California regulator, including businesses with significant consumer interactions, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • Series

    Writing Novels Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    Writing my debut novel taught me to appreciate the value of critique and to never give up, no matter how long or tedious the journey, providing me with valuable skills that I now emphasize in my practice, says Daniel Buzzetta at BakerHostetler.

  • SDNY OpenAI Order Clarifies Preservation Standards For AI

    Author Photo

    The Southern District of New York’s recent order in the OpenAI copyright infringement litigation, denying discovery of The New York Times' artificial intelligence technology use, clarifies that traditional preservation benchmarks apply to AI content, relieving organizations from using a “keep everything” approach, says Philip Favro at Favro Law.

  • Addressing Legal Risks Of AI In The Homebuilding Industry

    Author Photo

    Artificial intelligence is transforming the homebuilding industry, but the legal challenges posed by its adoption spread across many areas, including contractual liability and intellectual property issues, so builders should adopt strategies to mitigate the risks and position themselves for success, says Philip Stein at Bilzin Sumberg.

  • Cybersecurity Rule For DOD Contractors Creates New Risks

    Author Photo

    A rule locking in the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification system for defense contractors increases False Claims Act and criminal enforcement risks by narrowing a key exemption and mandating affirmations of past compliance, which may discourage new companies from entering the defense contracting market, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

  • Compliance Steps To Take As FCRA Enforcement Widens

    Author Photo

    As the Fair Credit Reporting Act receives renewed focus from both federal and state enforcers, regulatory and litigation risk is most acute in several core areas, which companies can address by implementing purpose processes and quick remediation of consumer complaints, among other steps, say attorneys at Wiley.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Cybersecurity & Privacy archive.