Vermont’s “Revenge Porn” Crime Survives Constitutional Challenge–State v. VanBuren
Like many other states, Vermont has a relatively new crime against nonconsensual pornography (NCP) dissemination. A lower court ruled that the crime was facially unconstitutional. The state appealed. In this ruling, the Vermont Supreme Court grants the “extraordinary” relief of…
Recent Developments Regarding the California Consumer Privacy Act
This post recaps some recent developments related to the California Consumer Privacy Act (which I’m still calling CCPA despite the IAPP’s effort to brand it CaCPA). The Technical Amendments Bill The technical amendments bill is SB 1121. The bill would…
The California Consumer Privacy Act Should Be Condemned, Not Celebrated (Cross-Post)
[I initially published this with the IAPP. They are the ones that chose “CaCPA” over “CCPA.”] For years, many privacy professionals yearned for a comprehensive U.S. privacy law. So when California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act, a comprehensive privacy…
A First (But Very Incomplete) Crack at Inventorying the California Consumer Privacy Act’s Problems
If you haven’t seen it, I summarized the California Consumer Privacy Act in a 3,000 word primer. If you aren’t familiar with the law, read that first. This post addresses the law’s multitudinous errors and major ambiguities. The list in this…
Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 5 (Potpourri)
My email inbox has gotten out of control, and I had to declare partial email bankruptcy. In this post, I’m largely quoting highlights from 18 cases I had flagged for closer review or possible posting over the past 18 months…
Ten Reasons Why California’s New Data Protection Law is Unworkable, Burdensome, and Possibly Unconstitutional (Guest Blog Post)
By guest blogger Jeff Kosseff [Jeff Kosseff is an assistant professor of cybersecurity law at the U.S. Naval Academy. The views in this post are only his, and do not represent the Naval Academy, Department of Navy, or Department of…
Q2 2018 Quick Links, Part 3 (Privacy, Advertising, E-Commerce)
Privacy * Financial Times: How the wealthy use privacy laws to keep out of the news. GDPR as a pro-censorship tool * Techdirt: Companies Respond to the GDPR By Blocking All EU Users * Financial Times: Data protectionism: the growing menace to global business…
A Privacy Bomb Is About to Be Dropped on the California Economy and the Global Internet
[Update: the law passed and I’ve posted a 3k word primer about it] By tomorrow, the California legislature likely will pass a sweeping, lengthy, overly-complicated, and poorly-constructed privacy law that will have ripple effects throughout the world. While not quite…
Court Dismisses Privacy Claims Against Email Subscription Management Tool–Cooper v. UnrollMe
UnrollMe provides a service allowing users to opt-out of unwanted emails. It does this by getting its users’ email account login credentials, which allows UnrollMe to access users’ email inboxes. This lawsuit alleges that UnrollMe sold users’ data. (🚨 Irony level:…
Appeals Court Curbs FTC’s Enforcement of Security Standards–LabMD v. FTC
This is an FTC enforcement action against LabMD. A LabMD billing manager installed a peer-to-peer file-sharing application called LimeWire and designated the “my documents” folder on her computer for sharing. This folder contained a 1,718 page file with names, dates…