Regulation

A settlement was announced in charges against Google Inc. for collecting data from people's homes. Under the agreement, Google will pay $7 million to 38 states. The terms of the settlement were announced by Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, whose office led a privacy task force investigating Google for unauthorized collection of data using its 'Street View' vehicles. The company agreed to change its corporate practices regarding privacy.

This article focuses on the conflict between U.S. and EU discovery procedures, and offers some useful and practical advice for U.S. litigants who may face uncertain territory when seeking discovery abroad.

The U.S. Supreme Court on March 27 concluded its historic two-day scrutiny of the thorny issue of same-sex marriage, displaying wariness about ruling on the subject even as it appeared possible that the justices will strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Florida has become the latest state to weigh in on the legal ethics of cloud computing, joining other states that have done so in concluding that lawyers may ethically use cloud computing, provided they exercise due diligence to ensure that the cloud provider maintains adequate safeguards to protect the confidentiality and security of client information.

This article examines the compliance issues raised by California's Online Privacy Protection Act, and the FTC's recent changes to the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, and what companies must do to ensure they are not in violation.

Given the allure of robust remedies in federal court, companies routinely plead CFAA unauthorized access claims ' in addition to state law causes of action for misappropriation and breach of contract ' against former employees who seek a competitive edge through the use of information misappropriated from their former employer's computer network.

Mandiant, a Virginia-based cybersecurity firm, gave America a wake-up slap across the face last month by detailing how Chinese military hackers are infiltrating U.S. companies. And on Feb. 20, President Barack Obama's administration responded by announcing a broad plan to fight the cyber theft of trade secrets that included diplomatic pressure to discourage it.

The FTC closed its inquiry, requiring Google to license patents that are essential to the interoperability of electronic devices but securing minimal agreements on what many viewed as the heart of the case: Google's dominance in the search market.