Lanton Law Blog

Learn about the latest trends and activities through our blog posts.

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New Bi-Partisan Privacy Bill Introduced

The Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act of 2021 has been reintroduced and is being led by Senators Kennedy (R-LA), Klobuchar (D-MN), Manchin (D-WV and Burr (R-NC). The proposal seeks to improve the transparency of online platforms, strengthen consumers’ options when a data breach occurs and ensure companies comply with privacy policies that protect consumers.

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New Executive Order on Cybersecurity Released in Response to Ransomware Attack

In the wake of the Colonial Pipeline attack, President Biden has signed the Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity.

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Congressional Legislation on Big Tech is Forthcoming

The U.S. House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Cicilline (D-RI) issued a statement shortly after the Committee marked up and approved the Committee’s report which after a 16 month investigation examined the state of competition within the digital economy.

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Cybersecurity & FY 22 Discretionary Funding Request

The President’s request for fiscal year 2022 discretionary funding has been released. Below are a few mentions for cybersecurity:

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Senator Markey and Congressman Lieu Reintroduce Bill Seeking to Improve the Cybersecurity of IoT Technology

Senator Markey (D-MA) and Congressman Lieu (D-CA) have reintroduced the Cyber Shield Act. The proposed legislation will create a voluntary program to identify and promote internet-connected products that meet industry-leading cybersecurity and data security standards, guidelines, best practices, methodologies, procedures, and proc- esses, and for other purposes.

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Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) Lawsuit Causes Facebook to Pay Settlement

On February 26, 2021 in the United States District Court Northern District of California, the Court found that Facebook was ordered to pay $650 million. This issue derived from the underlying lawsuit alleging whether the collection of an individual's biometric data in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act is sufficient to establish Article III standing. As a result of this dispute, the company’s automatic facial recognition tagging features are now an opt-in feature instead of being an opt-out choice.

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Apple Gets Legislative Victory in North Dakota For Now

The North Dakota senate voted 36-11 in opposition of advancing a bill that would have required app stores to enable software developers to use their own payment processing software, thus avoiding fees issued by both Google and Apple. This is the first bill of its kind in that this proposed legislation sought to address these tech giants and the fees they charge, which include in-app purchases of digital items.

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Virginia on Track to Become Second Second State to Pass Data Privacy Laws

Lanton Law’s privacy practice has been closely monitoring the various state conversations around data privacy. We previously wrote a blog post titled California’s Consumer Privacy Act Could Be Coming to a State Near You, where we traced how California took the first step to create a consumer privacy law in the wake of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation.

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The SAFE TECH Act Introduced into Congress

The ‘‘Safeguarding Against Fraud, Exploitation, Threats, Extremism, and Consumer Harms Act’’ or the "SAFE TECH Act" has been introduced into Congress. The proposal is led by Senators Warner (D-VA), Hirono (D-HI) and Klobuchar (D-MN), as the bill seeks changes to 47 U.S. Code § 230.

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New York State of the State 2021 Calls for Proposal to Safeguard Data Security Rights

Last month as part of the State of the State 2021, Governor Cuomo announced a comprehensive law around personal data and privacy protections for New York state residents.

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New Congressional Bill Aimed at Tech ISPs

The Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act has been introduced by Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and John Thune (R-South Dakota), which targets Internet Service Providers and attempts to limit their protections under 47 U.S. Code § 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), also called Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

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Senator Hawley Proposes New Congressional Legislation Targeting Behavioral Ads

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has recently announced his new legislation titled the Behavioral Advertising Decisions Are Downgrading Services (BAD ADS) Act. This bill proposes to remove Section 230 immunity from Big Tech companies that display manipulative, behavioral ads or provide data to be used for them. Behavioral ads are defined in the legislation.

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Big Tech Company Executives Pressed On Capitol Hill On Their Market Influence 

On July 29th four of the biggest tech companies, CEOs testified in front of Congress. Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Sundar Pichai of Google all took questions from the U.S House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law.

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New Legislation Targeting Technology Liability Shield Under Section 230

Now in addition to recent U.S. Department of Justice scrutiny, U.S. Senator Hawley (R-MO) has introduced the Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act, which seeks to provide accountability for bad actors who abuse the Good Samaritan protections provided under that Act.

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