Tag: Facebook

Cyber Risk

Applying Discovery Rules to Cybersecurity Investigations

During discovery, corporate entities have long been asked to produce documents from related internal investigations. Most rules of civil procedure now explicitly address such scenarios and are supplemented by extensive caselaw- get help now for law assistance. As litigation in the cybersecurity field becomes more commonplace, a growing body of caselaw has developed to address investigations of cybersecurity incidents as well as a better secure web gateway going forward. In the high-profile investigation of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica by the Massachusetts attorney general, oral argument… Continue Reading
Lawsuit

Decision to Dismiss Suit Seeking to Hold Facebook Liable for Hamas Attacks Affirmed by the Second Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit seeking to hold Facebook, Inc. liable for providing Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist organization who is a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization, a communication platform to encourage and enable acts of violence in Israel. Over three years ago, victims, estates, and family members of victims of terrorist attacks in Israel brought suit against Facebook alleging that Facebook provided material support to the terrorist organization by failing to remove content posted… Continue Reading
Class Action / Data Privacy

Biometric Class Action Against Facebook Greenlit by Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

In an opinion article dated August 8, 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court affirmed the district court’s order certifying a class action of users who claim Facebook’s facial-recognition technology violates Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). A copy of the Ninth Circuit’s opinion can be found here.  At issue is Facebook’s use of facial-recognition technology without first obtaining the consent of its users. The court agreed that the plaintiffs had sufficiently alleged a concrete and particularized harm sufficient to confer Article III standing. The court… Continue Reading
Cyber Attacks

House Representatives Ask Facebook to Halt Moving Forward with its Cryptocurrency

In the beginning of July 2019, four members of Congress in leadership roles in various committees in the House of Representatives issued a letter to Facebook’s executives calling for Facebook “to agree to a moratorium on any movement forward” with its proposed cryptocurrency, Libra, and proposed digital wallet, Calibra, citing concerns over “privacy, trading, national security, and monetary policy[.]”    In June 2019, Facebook announced its plan, which had been in development for a year, to create a cryptocurrency backed by financial assets assembled by… Continue Reading
Cybercrime / Lawsuit

Russian Company Whose Employee Was Charged With Election Meddling Sues Facebook to Have Account Restored

A Russian company known as Federal Agency of News, LLC (FAN), whose accountant was indicted by federal prosecutors for her alleged role in “Project Lakhta” – a Russian interference operation in political and electoral systems targeting populations in, among other places, the United States – has sued Facebook alleging it is a legitimate news outlet whose Facebook account must be restored. On November 20, 2018, FAN and its sole shareholder, Evgeniy Zubarev, commenced suit against Facebook in the United States District Court, Northern District of … Continue Reading
Class Action / Cybersecurity / Data Privacy

Facebook Moves to Dismiss Derivative Action Arising Out of Cambridge Analytica Scandal

On September 28, 2018, Facebook and its board of directors moved to dismiss a derivative action filed by Karen Sbriglio, a Facebook investor, alleging breach of a fiduciary duty.  The lawsuit, filed after revelations of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, claims the failure of Facebook’s leadership and governance in permitting the misappropriation of Facebook users’ data subjected it to public scrutiny, billions of dollars of lost market value, and significant fines and costs.  The basis of Facebook’s motion was that the company’s board, rather than… Continue Reading
Cyber Attacks / Cyber Breach

Security Breach Compromises 50 Million Facebook Accounts

In the wake of concerns that the social media giant collects too much personal data, Facebook, Inc. discovered a security breach on September 25, 2018 that affected almost 50 million accounts. Recent privacy regulations, including those recently enacted in the European Union, may have forced Facebook into promptly reporting the breach just three days after it was discovered. Based on the breaking-news reports, the FBI is working with Facebook to investigate the breach to determine the extent of the breach, what information was accessed, whether… Continue Reading
Artificial Intelligence

Amazon’s Facial Recognition Software Sparks Privacy Concerns

The recent television series Person of Interest, which aired between 2011 and 2016, was premised upon an artificial intelligence (AI) program that could recognize patterns to determine individuals who may become victims of violent crimes. Facial recognition was one of the machine’s abilities, allowing the show’s protagonists to locate and track individuals in and throughout New York City.  The AI in Person of Interest is no longer the stuff of television or of the future. Lawmakers and civil rights groups have expressed their concern… Continue Reading
Cybersecurity / Emerging Issues

Papua New Guinea Shuts Down Facebook…Temporarily

The democratic government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has announced a one-month shutdown of Facebook access within the nation, to allow the government to assess the spread of objectionable content, and to “allow information to be collected to identify users that hide behind fake accounts, users that upload pornographic images, users that post false and misleading information on Facebook to be filtered and removed.” While regimes such as Iran, North Korea, and China currently censor the social networking site, PNG is the first democratic nation… Continue Reading
Data Privacy

Facebook Continues Playing the Globalist Game

Facebook once again recently taught us that it may be easier to avoid a law, than to comply with it. On April 17, 2018, Facebook confirmed that to meet its mission to comply “in spirit” with “the whole” of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) , which takes effect on May 25, 2018, Facebook is effectively moving data for approximately 1.5 million users outside the reach of the law.  By offering “new privacy experiences” complete with updated terms of service … Continue Reading