Cybersecurity & Privacy

  • 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.

  • January 13, 2026

    Voting Rights Orgs., Ill. Voters Ask To Fight DOJ Records Suit

    Voter and immigrant advocacy groups are seeking, alongside individual voters, to step in to fight the U.S. government's legal pursuit of unredacted voter registration records from Illinois election officials, saying they can more appropriately defend the suit given the privacy rights and interests at stake.

  • January 13, 2026

    Insurer, IT Co. Settle Coverage Claims Suit In Colo.

    An insurance company, an IT company and an investment firm have reached a settlement in the insurer's federal lawsuit in Colorado that alleged it owed no coverage to the IT company, which a jury found liable for making misrepresentations and breaching its cybersecurity agreement with the investment company.

  • January 13, 2026

    KuCoin, Chainalysis Beat RICO Suit Over Hack Proceeds

    The cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin and its blockchain analysis contractor no longer face proposed class action claims they turned a blind eye to money laundering on the platform, though a Manhattan federal judge found one of the alleged hack victims could revise certain claims against KuCoin.

  • January 13, 2026

    USPTO Launches New Pilot For SEP Development

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said Tuesday it has created a new pilot program encouraging the development of standard-essential patents by smaller entities.

  • January 13, 2026

    CEO Of Auto Mat Maker WeatherTech Tapped For FTC Spot

    The founder and CEO of automobile accessories-maker WeatherTech, David MacNeil, was nominated to a seat on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission by President Donald Trump, the White House announced Tuesday. 

  • January 13, 2026

    Epic Systems Alleges Data Cos. Stole Records To Sell To Attys

    Epic Systems, the nation's largest electronic health records company, told a California federal court on Tuesday that a health information network and a group of "bad actors" stole over 300,000 confidential patient records from health information exchange frameworks to illegally sell to third parties, including personal injury lawyers.

  • January 13, 2026

    Senate Backs Bill Giving Deepfake Porn Victims Right To Sue

    The U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed bipartisan legislation that would allow individuals depicted in nonconsensual, artificial intelligence-generated, sexually explicit content to sue and recover damages, backing the bill once again after it stalled in the House in 2024.

Expert Analysis

  • 11th Circ.'s FCRA Standing Ruling Offers Compliance Lessons

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    The Eleventh Circuit's recent decision in Nelson v. Experian on establishing Article III standing under the Fair Credit Reporting Act should prompt businesses to survey FCRA compliance programs, review open matters for standing defenses and refresh training materials, say attorneys at Nixon Peabody.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Mastering Time Management

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    Law students typically have weeks or months to prepare for any given deadline, but the unpredictability of practicing in the real world means that lawyers must become time-management pros, ready to adapt to scheduling conflicts and unexpected assignments at any given moment, says David Thomas at Honigman.

  • How Prohibiting Trigger Leads May Affect Mortgage Marketing

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    Recent amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act prohibiting the sale of trigger leads mark a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for mortgage lenders, third-party lead generators and their legal counsel, who should reevaluate lead generation strategies and compliance protocols, say Joel Herberman, Rob Robilliard and Leah Dempsey at Brownstein Hyatt.

  • Privacy Policy Lessons After Google App Data Verdict

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    In Rodriguez v. Google, a California federal jury recently found that Google unlawfully invaded app users' privacy by collecting, using and disclosing pseudonymized data, highlighting the complex interplay between nonpersonalized data and customers' understanding of privacy policy choices, says Beth Waller at Woods Rogers.

  • How Hyperlinks Are Changing E-Discovery Responsibilities

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    A recent e-discovery dispute over hyperlinked data in Hubbard v. Crow shows how courts have increasingly broadened the definition of control to account for cloud-based evidence, and why organizations must rethink preservation practices to avoid spoliation risks, says Bree Murphy at Exterro.

  • Recent Precedent May Aid In Defending Ad Tech Class Actions

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    An emergent line of appellate court precedent regarding the indecipherability of anonymized advertising technology transmissions can be used as a powerful tool to counteract the explosion of advertising technology class actions under myriad statutory theories, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

  • Key Points From DOJ's New DeFi Enforcement Outline

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    Recent remarks by the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division head Matthew Galeotti reveal several issues that the decentralized finance industry should address in order to minimize risk, including developers' role in evaluating protocols and the importance of illicit finance risk assessments, says Drew Rolle at Alston & Bird.

  • Navigating The Risks Of Employee-Influencers, Side Gigs

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    Though companies may be embracing employee-influencer roles, this growing trend — along with an increase in gig employment — presents compliance risks, particularly around employee classification, compensation and workplace policies, as the line between work, influence and outside employment becomes increasingly blurred, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • Assessing Potential Ad Tech Remedies Ahead Of Google Trial

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    The Virginia federal judge tasked with prying open Google’s digital advertising monopoly faces a smorgasbord of potential remedies, all with different implications for competition, government control and consumers' internet experience, but compromises reached in the parallel Google search monopoly litigation may point a way forward, say attorneys at MoloLamken.

  • Series

    Writing Musicals Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My experiences with writing musicals and practicing law have shown that the building blocks for both endeavors are one and the same, because drama is necessary for the law to exist, says Addison O’Donnell at LOIS Law.

  • 3 Circuits Breathe Life Into Privacy Enforcement, For Now

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    With the Second Circuit's recent decision in Verizon v. Federal Communications Commission, three courts of appeals have weighed in on all four record-breaking fines imposed, showing that — at least for now — the FCC continues to have broad authority to set and enforce privacy rules outside of the Fifth Circuit, say attorneys at HWG.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From Va. AUSA To Mid-Law

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    Returning to the firm where I began my career after seven years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia has been complex, nuanced and rewarding, and I’ve learned that the pursuit of justice remains the constant, even as the mindset and client change, says Kristin Johnson at Woods Rogers.

  • Transmission Security Has A Critical Role In Healthcare

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    In light of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights' continuing enforcement initiative focusing on businesses' accurate and thorough security risk assessments under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, covered entities should not neglect the importance of transmission security, says John Howard at Clark Hill.

  • 7 Document Review Concepts New Attorneys Need To Know

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    For new associates joining firms this fall, stepping into the world of e-discovery can feel like learning a new language, but understanding a handful of fundamentals — from coding layouts to metadata — can help attorneys become fluent in document review, says Ann Motl at Bowman and Brooke.

  • Agentic AI Puts A New Twist On Attorney Ethics Obligations

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    As lawyers increasingly use autonomous artificial intelligence agents, disciplinary authorities must decide whether attorney responsibility for an AI-caused legal ethics violation is personal or supervisory, and firms must enact strong policies regarding agentic AI use and supervision, says Grace Wynn at HWG.

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