Perhaps you are old enough to recall when consumers used to have to go to video stores like Blockbuster Video to rent a movie. And perhaps you recall the excitement of scoring a copy of the always limited “new release.” It was during these “archaic” times that Congress passed the federal Video Privacy Protection Act in response to a newspaper publishing Robert Bork’s video rental history during his U.S. Supreme Court nomination.
Read the full Alert on the Duane Morris LLP website.
As companies take advantage of new technologies in their interactions with customers and employees, they need to be mindful of the risks associated with implementation of those types of systems. This is especially true in the realm of federal and state privacy statutes, which in some instances have been created recently to address privacy concerns. There are also existing laws that are now being applied in a different context.
Read the Law360 article on the Duane Morris LLP website.
A new wave of class action lawsuits filed in California, Pennsylvania and Florida target companies that use technologies to track user activity on their websites, alleging such practices, when done without obtaining a user’s consent, violate electronic interception provisions of various state laws. The two technologies at issue are: 1) session replay software and 2) coding tools embedded in chat features. Session replay software tracks a user’s interactions with the website—their clicking, scrolling, swiping, hovering and typing—and creates a stylized recording of those interactions and inputs. Coding tools create and store transcripts of the conversations users have in a website’s chat feature. The plaintiffs in this new string of class actions allege that recording their interactions with a website and sending that recording to a third party for analysis without their consent is an illegal invasion of their privacy.
Read the full Alert on the Duane Morris LLP website.
A California federal court ruled that a text asking a patient to rate the doctor – sent minutes after the examination by a company that contracts with the health care provider to send Patient Satisfaction Surveys – does not alone satisfy an inference that the text was sent by an Automatic Telephone Dialing System (“ATDS”) within the definition of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (“TCPA”). Continue reading “TCPA Ruling: Text Asking Patient To Rate The Doctor”
A federal court ruled that a fax sent by a pharmacy benefit manager (“PBM”) to healthcare providers notifying recipients of changes to insured parties’ coverage for prescriptions – the fax mentioned the PBM’s business but did not promote any products or services – did not constitute an “advertisement” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (“TCPA”). The court applied the “commercial nature” test for a TCPA advertisement. Continue reading “TCPA Ruling: Health Insurance “Update” Fax Is Not A TCPA Advertisement”
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs – digital assets which are not traded on exchanges, but instead are tokens which represent the ownership of a digital file (for example, a photo or digital art)) have exploded onto the digital asset ‘scene’ over the last 18 months or so. They are generally (but not always) built on the Ethereum blockchain. NFTs are bought and sold using cryptocurrency, but not traded on exchanges. Instead, they are purchased through specialist third party auction sites or sold/transferred privately.
The speed of mass NFT adoption has created significant opportunity (in the wake of the increase in value of NFTs, and also allowing content creators to monetise their services by tokenising art and music) but also exposed potential for the system to be exploited.
To read the full text of this blog post by Duane Morris attorney Chris Recker, please visit the Duane Morris London Blog.
We are now starting to see a variety of cryptocurrency related frauds appearing before the English Court. Following the decision in AA v Persons Unknown [2019] EWHC 3556 (Comm) (where an insurer was granted a proprietary injunction as part of its strategy to recover a ransomware payment which had been negotiated and paid in Bitcoin) the English Court has dealt with several cases relating to cryptocurrency.
To read the full text of this blog post by Duane Morris attorney Chris Recker, please visit the Duane Morris London Blog.
Duane Morris is hosting the Data Privacy and Security Landscape: Legal Developments in the United States and Beyond Webinar Series. The second session, “Privacy Issues in Cross-Border Litigation,” takes place June 30, 2021, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern / 5:30 p.m. BST.
For more information and to register, please visit the event website.
A webinar replay of the Data Privacy and Security Landscape: Legal Developments in the United States and Beyond Webinar Series session, “Understanding Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act,” is now available.
