e-Commerce News

Plaintiffs law firms quickly filed 24 class action lawsuits on behalf of Safari and Internet Explorer users. The complaints alleged violations of state unfair competition laws as well as violations of federal statutes like the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), 18 U.S.C. ”2510 et seq. The cases were consolidated before Robinson last year.

Google's lawyers at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati moved to dismiss the MDL in January, arguing that “there is no Article III injury where a plaintiff makes nothing more than general allegations that the value of his or her 'personal information' was diminished by its collection and use.” That's been a very popular and very effective defense tactic in online privacy class actions. In a motion opposing dismissal, members of the plaintiffs' steering committee argued that there's a bustling marketplace for data about Web users, so the theft of personal data is clearly an economic injury.

Robinson left no doubt as to which side she thought had the better argument. “[W]hile the plaintiffs have offered some evidence that the online personal information at issue has some modicum of identifiable value to an individual plaintiff, plaintiffs have not sufficiently alleged that the ability to monetize their [personal information] has been diminished or lost,” she wrote.

' Jan Wolfe, The Litigation Daily

Washington University Debuts Cybersecurity Master's Program

Citing growing concerns over cybersecurity and the need for organizations to proactively minimize exposure to potential security breaches, Washington University in St. Louis has launched a new master's degree program focusing on cybersecurity management.'

Launched at the end of August, it is offered at the Henry Edwin Sever Institute, a division of Washington University's School of Engineering & Applied Science, in conjunction with the university's Olin Business School.

According to a press release, Spear-Tip, a cyber-counterintelligence firm, will provide coursework for the program. See, http://bit.ly/191csAl.

Jack Zaloudek, program director for the cybersecurity management program, says the idea for one course came during a cybersecurity roundtable where several CIOs told him they were having difficulty finding qualified candidates for management positions in cyber teams. “They had no problem finding people with tech skills,” he says. “It was more a management issue.”

While the program does not have a law school component, Zaloudek says legal issues are addressed in the curriculum.

In an August blog post on SpearTip's website, the company stated that in-house counsel must play a leading role in maintaining cybersecurity. “Working hand-in-glove in understanding the nuances of cybersecurity, an organization's foremost ally in the struggle to counter disreputable actors is none other than their in-house counsel,” the post states. “With much more at stake than merely financial implications, there are unquantifiable costs affecting reputation and brand that can haunt organizations indefinitely. The General Counsel's office is perhaps the best-equipped to patrol the expanse between safe and sorry.” See, “The Indispensability of Cyber Counterintelligence.”'

William Hamilton, a litigation partner at Quarles & Brady who teaches e-discovery at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law and is involved in other educational programs, says he foresees even greater integration between law, business and technology when it comes to graduate-level cybersecurity programs.

“There are any number of master's programs located around the nation that are typically offered by business colleges or engineering and computer science departments,” he says. “The trend is that such programs are becoming multi-dimensional and cross departmental, including law schools. The next phase will be master's degrees in 'Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, Investigations (including e-discovery) and Privacy,' that will feature integrated legal, technical, management and ethics components.”

Among the schools offering cybersecurity degrees are the University of Maryland University College, Utica College (master's), The George Washington University, New York University-Polytechnic Institute and Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.

' Victor Li, Law Technology News

Google Beats Web Browser Privacy Class Action

Yet another online privacy class action bit the dust on standing grounds on Oct. 9. This time around, Google Inc. and its lawyers dodged claims that Google illegally monitored users of the popular Web browsers Safari and Internet Explorer. See, In Re: Google Inc. Cookie Placement Consumer Privacy Litigation, MDL Civ. No. 12-2358-SLR. In the case, U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson in Delaware dismissed allegations that Google tricked Web surfers into accepting third-party cookies. Robinson ruled that there's no indication that users of Safari and Internet Explorer suffered an economic injury.

In February 2012, a Stanford University researcher published findings that Google had overridden the default privacy settings on Safari, an Apple Inc. browser that's known for blocking third-party cookies. Microsoft later revealed that Google similarly bypassed privacy settings on Internet Explorer. Google quickly apologized. It chalked the override up to a technical glitch, and insisted that it didn't mean to show users targeted ads. The company paid a $22.5 million fine to the Federal Trade Commission in August 2012.

Plaintiffs law firms quickly filed 24 class action lawsuits on behalf of Safari and Internet Explorer users. The complaints alleged violations of state unfair competition laws as well as violations of federal statutes like the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), 18 U.S.C. ”2510 et seq. The cases were consolidated before Robinson last year.

Google's lawyers at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati moved to dismiss the MDL in January, arguing that “there is no Article III injury where a plaintiff makes nothing more than general allegations that the value of his or her 'personal information' was diminished by its collection and use.” That's been a very popular and very effective defense tactic in online privacy class actions. In a motion opposing dismissal, members of the plaintiffs' steering committee argued that there's a bustling marketplace for data about Web users, so the theft of personal data is clearly an economic injury.

Robinson left no doubt as to which side she thought had the better argument. “[W]hile the plaintiffs have offered some evidence that the online personal information at issue has some modicum of identifiable value to an individual plaintiff, plaintiffs have not sufficiently alleged that the ability to monetize their [personal information] has been diminished or lost,” she wrote.

' Jan Wolfe, The Litigation Daily

Washington University Debuts Cybersecurity Master's Program

Citing growing concerns over cybersecurity and the need for organizations to proactively minimize exposure to potential security breaches, Washington University in St. Louis has launched a new master's degree program focusing on cybersecurity management.'

Launched at the end of August, it is offered at the Henry Edwin Sever Institute, a division of Washington University's School of Engineering & Applied Science, in conjunction with the university's Olin Business School.

According to a press release, Spear-Tip, a cyber-counterintelligence firm, will provide coursework for the program. See, http://bit.ly/191csAl.

Jack Zaloudek, program director for the cybersecurity management program, says the idea for one course came during a cybersecurity roundtable where several CIOs told him they were having difficulty finding qualified candidates for management positions in cyber teams. “They had no problem finding people with tech skills,” he says. “It was more a management issue.”

While the program does not have a law school component, Zaloudek says legal issues are addressed in the curriculum.

In an August blog post on SpearTip's website, the company stated that in-house counsel must play a leading role in maintaining cybersecurity. “Working hand-in-glove in understanding the nuances of cybersecurity, an organization's foremost ally in the struggle to counter disreputable actors is none other than their in-house counsel,” the post states. “With much more at stake than merely financial implications, there are unquantifiable costs affecting reputation and brand that can haunt organizations indefinitely. The General Counsel's office is perhaps the best-equipped to patrol the expanse between safe and sorry.” See, “The Indispensability of Cyber Counterintelligence.”'

William Hamilton, a litigation partner at Quarles & Brady who teaches e-discovery at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law and is involved in other educational programs, says he foresees even greater integration between law, business and technology when it comes to graduate-level cybersecurity programs.

“There are any number of master's programs located around the nation that are typically offered by business colleges or engineering and computer science departments,” he says. “The trend is that such programs are becoming multi-dimensional and cross departmental, including law schools. The next phase will be master's degrees in 'Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, Investigations (including e-discovery) and Privacy,' that will feature integrated legal, technical, management and ethics components.”

Among the schools offering cybersecurity degrees are the University of Maryland University College, Utica College (master's), The George Washington University, New York University-Polytechnic Institute and Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.

' Victor Li, Law Technology News