Technology isn’t stuck in the 90s. Why is privacy? Open up any word processing system or many other apps, and you may notice the icon for “Save:” is a 3.5-inch floppy disk. We use this icon dozens of times a week, typically without thinking about it, but it conceals a striking fact. The most common… Read More
For those of us who pay attention to and care about these kinds of things, the Court of Justice of the European Union has issued a ruling today stating that the FTC’s Privacy Shield framework governing the transfer of personal data from Europe to the United States is no longer valid. This ruling is very… Read More
I think we can all agree that March 2020 lasted approximately 11 years and that April lasted about 11 minutes. Seriously, what happened to April? Why did time seem to absolutely whiz by while just a few weeks earlier it felt like we were waking up on March 78th? Perhaps it has something to do… Read More
Zoom, the videoconferencing platform on everyone’s lips this month, has had an roller coaster of a first quarter. As remote working became the norm for hundreds of millions, the company rapidly emerged as a favorite in the United States, where its simplicity and video quality made it stand out from competitors. Its daily usage swelled… Read More
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about data partnerships because we believe in their potential as vehicles for growth, success, and innovation. But sometimes it’s valuable to lay out particular versions of those partnerships to give you an idea of what data you can deploy and how it can be valuable. Use this discussion… Read More
As many people adjust to the reality of working from home, we find ourselves in a situation that we largely didn’t anticipate: seemingly everyone else doing the same thing. In the past, a day or two here or there doing Zoom meetings or conference calls was interesting, anomalous, and largely ad hoc, so there wasn’t… Read More
Privacy is not the top priority for most people or businesses dealing with a health crisis, and the spread of COVID-19 means that privacy will (rightly) take a backseat to handling individual and global health needs. Frankly, one of the biggest problems is managing the flow of disinformation/misinformation as it winds its way through social… Read More
One of the biggest concerns we have when we talk to clients about how to create data partnerships is the security and protection of data. We don’t mean cybersecurity and the literal safeguarding of information, though that’s undoubtedly essential too. Instead, we’re talking about ensuring that datasets are used only as appropriate, are kept within… Read More
Okay, There’s An App For That. Why? Ho boy. The Iowa Caucuses were…they happened. And they happened in a way that was both completely unprecedented and utterly, exhaustingly predictable. It’s a story line that’s becoming, frankly, a little boring: people use old process, someone decides that an app (or AI) will be better, lots of… Read More
We’ve already spent some time discussing the kind of partnerships where a small, innovative firm wants to partner with a larger one to create new value and drive growth. Many times, this is how the smaller business gets its foot in the door, and (together, perhaps, with a channel agreement) first is able to get… Read More
When you’re a lawyer and you write about truth, you’re basically asking to be insulted because….you know….you’re a lawyer. It’s true, some of my fellow legal professionals have occasionally had a less than intimate connection with the truth, but, in general, even the best lawyers squint their eyes and look wary when someone talks about… Read More
Although there’s no shortage of media coverage of data as a valuable asset and data partnerships as an important part of nearly every business transaction, there’s precious little explanation of exactly how data fits into business beyond its role as raw material. While it’s probably easier to follow the “data as oil” line of thinking,… Read More
Fads are a big part of January. Everyone wants to hashtag their efforts at keeping up their New Year’s Resolution (#NoCheeseMonth, #NoCarbMonth, #NoFunMonth), and our collective refusal to acknowledge that the holidays are over means we’re all still desperate for distractions. But nobody minds, because we all love fads — it’s why we get obsessed… Read More
It’s been a week, folks. Not even a week. And we’ve already got a looming hot war, an active cyberwar, three major data breaches, and the promise of a major fight over GDPR on the very near horizon. Apparently, 2020 is going to be like 2019, just more so. Normally, this is the time of… Read More
To me, the most meaningful meme of this year was “OK, Boomer” (Baby Yoda was a non-event, don’t @ me). It not only perfectly captures the very real, politically potent generational conflict going on right now, but it also reflects how completely ignored Generation X is in our current culture wars. (I feel no guilt… Read More
Happy Boxing Day from everyone at Ward PLLC. We hope that you’re all having an enjoyable, and suitably private, holiday season. For many people, today is a day of quiet, calm, reflection, relaxation, and desperately trying to find out if you can get cash refunds from Restoration Hardware for the gifts your in-laws inexplicably decided… Read More
Like all right-thinking people, I love Marvin Gaye’s rendition of I Heard it Through the Grapevine — ironic though it may be that a privacy lawyer would enjoy a song about unauthorized release of sensitive personal data. You’re probably hearing it in your head right now, the bassline kicking in and maybe thinking about times… Read More
You may not have read the New York Times Privacy Project yet, but if not, now is the time to do so. They have begun a series on the nature of tracking individuals via cellphones, armed with a treasure trove of over 50 billion pings on 12 million phones. The results are dramatic, showing just… Read More
You may recall that we made some predictions way back in January about what would happen in privacy, privacy law, and data partnerships over the course of 2019. Well, we believe in accountability, and so it’s time to check out how well we did. There’s a reason that most people don’t reflect on their New… Read More
Very often, we hear clients or businesses express the idea that “we want to give our customers control over the privacy of their data, and that sounds good, but making it a reality is much more complicated.” That’s a fair assessment — operationalizing privacy is something that companies in the U.S. have a difficult time… Read More