SpaceXAI's Grok Sued For Breaking Ill. Law With Face Scans

By Allison Grande

The Grok chatbot operated by Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company is illegally collecting and storing the biometric data of users who upload photos of their faces to generate edited images, according to a proposed class action filed in Illinois federal court.

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Wash. Justices Say Privacy Act Doesn't Bar Hospital Pixel Use

By Rachel Riley

The Washington State Supreme Court said Thursday the state's privacy act does not prohibit Seattle Children's Hospital from using web analytics tool Meta Pixel on its public-facing website, rejecting a group of parents' allegations that their browsing and search activity was illegally intercepted and sent to the Facebook parent company.

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ICE Policy Halting Biometrics Collection On Hold

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

A D.C. federal judge has put a hold on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's policy of refusing to collect biometric information needed to process immigration applications for detained immigrants.

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Webull Sued By Investor Over Chinese Gov't Links

By Jessica Corso

Trading platform Webull Corp. on Thursday was hit with an investor lawsuit accusing it of underselling its ties to China, shortly after a U.S. House committee released a report detailing how those ties could put customer data at risk.

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FCC Dem Slams 'Dark Money' Plan For Political Robocalls

By Nadia Dreid

The FCC spends a lot of time trying to do something about the billions of illegal robocalls Americans are pelted with every month, but the agency is currently considering a proposal to relax the current rules on political robocalls ahead of the November midterms — to the chagrin of the commission's lone Democrat.

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Lawmakers Push For Protections In $10M Spirit Data Sale

By Kelcey Caulder

More than 120 mostly Democratic lawmakers raised concerns Thursday about the proposed $10 million sale of Spirit Airlines' internal data to Google for artificial intelligence training, saying the sale would involve an "extraordinary volume" of internal records containing individuals' sensitive information.

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Top Groups Lobbying The FCC

By Christopher Cole

Lobbying efforts at the Federal Communications Commission spiked in September as companies and interest groups looked to sway FCC policies on issues such as modernizing the phone networks, Lifeline reform, environmental rules, satellite spectrum and more.

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FTC's Meador Urges EU To Adopt Case-By-Case Enforcement

By Bryan Koenig

Federal Trade Commission member Mark Meador on Thursday argued digital market rules in the U.K. and the European Union undermine international cooperation with U.S. antitrust and consumer protection enforcers, in the latest Trump administration admonishment of the policies.

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Fla. Panel Trims Punitive Damages Claim By Ex-Marvel CEO

By Carolina Bolado

The former CEO of Marvel Entertainment can request punitive damages against his neighbor in a feud over the surreptitious collection of DNA evidence but not against the neighbor's attorney or a Chubb affiliate accused of helping him, a Florida appeals court has ruled.

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Sheppard Mullin Hit With Class Action Over Data Breach

By Jake Maher

A former Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP paralegal launched a proposed class action against the firm in California federal court on Wednesday over a cyberattack it had in August, in which she says at least 1,000 people's names and Social Security numbers were stolen.

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Sen. Scott Can Trim Booz Allen Tax Info Leak Suit, Judge Says

By Zak Kostro

Sen. Rick Scott can narrow his suit over an IRS contractor's leak of his tax returns to proceed only on a negligence claim against Booz Allen Hamilton in Florida federal court, a judge ruled, saying the trim avoids overlapping litigation after claims against the leaker were transferred.

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Utility Giant Southern Co. Sued Over Recent Data Breach

By Kelcey Caulder

The Southern Co. has been hit with a proposed class action in Georgia federal court, accusing the utility holding company of failing to adequately protect hundreds of thousands of customers' personal information during a recent cyberattack.

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Ameriprise Says Data Breach Suit Leans On Speculative Harm

By Sydney Price

Ameriprise Financial Inc. on Thursday asked a Minnesota federal court to dismiss a proposed class action from consumers accusing it of failing to safeguard their data from cybercriminals in a March breach, arguing the suit's plaintiffs do not allege that their data was involved in the incident.

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USA Today Adds To Pile Of Newspaper Suits Against OpenAI

By Elliot Weld

USA Today Co. Inc. and several of its subsidiary newspapers accused OpenAI on Thursday in New York federal court of using their copyrighted news content to train ChatGPT, adding to a heap of lawsuits filed by large and small newspapers claiming the company made free use of content it should have paid for.

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Deals Rumor Mill

SpaceX, DeepSeek And Anthropic Top Week's Deal Rumors

By Al Barbarino

SpaceX is seeking financing to purchase $40 billion of Nvidia microchips, Chinese AI company DeepSeek is close to securing a $12 billion funding round, and Anthropic could launch its initial public offering before Thanksgiving. In other reports, Barbie maker Mattel is facing increased pressure to sell after a rough run on the stock market. 

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Series

Mentalism Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Convincing strangers I can read their minds may seem like an unusual second career for a legal practitioner, but both disciplines share several important requirements, including trust and preparation, says Warren Biro at Manatt.

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IDScan Data Breach Puts Spotlight On Vendor Oversight

A recently reported breach that exposed millions of identification documents held by IDScan.net highlights the liability risks for businesses that contract with third-party identity processors, and emphasizes the importance of auditing vendors' data retention practices, say attorneys at Tucker Ellis.

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IP Rights Group Urges Against Litigation Funding Disclosure

By Elliot Weld

An inventor rights advocacy group has told a federal courts rules committee that requiring the disclosure of who is funding civil litigation would put independent inventors at a disadvantage when trying to enforce patents against a larger company.

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Analysis

New Fraud Division Flexes Might In Latest Enforcement Policy

By Phillip Bantz

The National Fraud Enforcement Division's new corporate enforcement policy emphasizes the quick pursuit of certain types of fraud through data analysis and staff resources, expands the target list beyond traditional healthcare providers and highlights the division's growing dominance within the U.S. Department of Justice, experts say.

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Cornell Defendant Seeks To Nix James As Special Prosecutor

By Andrea Keckley

One of the seven men accused of drugging and raping a fellow Cornell University student at a fraternity home has asked a New York state court to void Gov. Kathy Hochul's appointment of New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the case.

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Gov't Attys Could Face Sanctions Over AI Use Omissions

By Madeline Lyskawa

A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge has ordered four government attorneys to explain why they shouldn't be sanctioned for making factual misrepresentations about the U.S. Army's use of artificial intelligence to evaluate contract proposals.

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Split Congress Could Spur Competing Probes, Cleary Finds

By Courtney Bublé

If the new year brings an era of divided Congress, then "dueling investigations" into the same topics should be expected, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP said in a report it released Thursday.

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Fla. Judge Says Oct. 7 Attack Was 'Inflection Point' For U.S.

By David Minsky

U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman addressed a small group of attorneys in a Florida law office to speak on his book about the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, saying public debate over facts surrounding the event and underlying feud has reached an "inflection point" in America.

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Buzbee Faces $970K Fee Bid In Dismissed Conspiracy Cases

By Lynn LaRowe

A Mississippi lawyer is asking a Texas state court to award her more than $970,000 in fees after defeating claims that she and her law firm conspired with rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP to retaliate against prominent Houston plaintiffs attorney Tony Buzbee and two of his former clients.

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Dems Says GOP Broke Senate Rules In Jack Smith Hearing

By Courtney Bublé

The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have accused Republicans of violating committee rules during a hearing last week with former special counsel Jack Smith.

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