Senator Markey and Congressman Lieu Reintroduce Bill Seeking to Improve the Cybersecurity of IoT Technology

Senator Markey (D-MA) and Congressman Lieu (D-CA) have reintroduced the Cyber Shield Act. The proposed legislation will create a voluntary program to identify and promote internet-connected products that meet industry-leading cybersecurity and data security standards, guidelines, best practices, methodologies, procedures, and processes, and for other purposes. 

According to the legislators’ press release, the proposal will specifically establish an advisory committee of cybersecurity experts from academia, industry, consumer groups, government, and the public to create cybersecurity benchmarks for IoT devices – such as baby monitors, home assistants, smart locks, cameras, cell phones, and laptops. IoT manufacturers can then voluntarily certify that their products meet those cybersecurity benchmarks, and display this certification to the public with a “Cyber Shield” label that will help consumers identify and purchase more secure technology for their homes.”

The bill can be viewed here. 

Our reliance on technology has become even more vital with the effects of COVID-19. With all of the hacking and malware attacks we have witnessed against various data stakeholders, we foresee cybersecurity as a major policy area that will continue to be expanded.   

Lanton Law is a national boutique law andlobbying firm that focuses on technology and Health IT.If you are an industry stakeholder with questions about the current landscape or if you would like to discuss how your organization’s strategic initiatives might be impacted by either Congress, regulatory agencies or legal decisions,contact us today.

Technology Industry Groups File Lawsuit Targeting Maryland Digital Ad Tax

A coalition of technology stakeholder associations that include the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Internet Association, are suing Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot (D), over the state’s recent enactment of the state’s online advertising tax; a first in the nation law. We previously wrote a blog post on this tax.

 According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs “seek a declaration and injunction against enforcement of Maryland House Bill 732 (the Act) insofar as it imposes a “Digital Advertising Gross Revenues Tax” on sellers of digital advertising services. The Act is a punitive assault on digital, but not print, advertising. It is illegal in myriad ways and should be declared unlawful and enjoined.

 Additionally plaintiffs argue “The premise of the law is deeply flawed. Taxing digital advertising revenue will have the opposite of the Act’s intended effect, reducing resources to support the creation and availability of high-quality ad-supported content, leaving the online field overrun by low-quality “junk” content. Meanwhile, the Act will raise costs for consumers and make it more difficult for businesses to connect with potential customers. Simply put, the Act will harm Marylanders and small businesses and reduce the overall quality of internet content—all while doing nothing to stave off the dissemination of misinformation and hate speech.”

We’ll continue to monitor these events as it is almost a certainty that other states will attempt to pass similar legislation. Technology stakeholders including those in digital commerce will continue to be at risk. We at Lanton Law can help. Our legal and policy tools can help offer your organization a clear path forward to navigate what will be changing policies for technology stakeholders. Contact us today to discuss your options.

The SAFE TECH Act Introduced into Congress

The ‘‘Safeguarding Against Fraud, Exploitation, Threats, Extremism, and Consumer Harms Act’’ or the "SAFE TECH Act" has been introduced into Congress. The proposal is led by Senators Warner (D-VA), Hirono (D-HI) and Klobuchar (D-MN), as the bill seeks changes to 47 U.S. Code § 230. 

The law which is part of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), also called Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, provides ISP’s with federal immunity to any cause of action that seeks to make ISP’s liable for information that originated with a third party service user. 

Specifically, §230 states: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” The additional specifics of this law describe the liability shield that these companies currently enjoy which is further protected by federal preemption law. 

We have written several blog post on this topic about prior legislation targeting the law as well as prior U.S. DOJ Scrutiny on the matter. 

Since the SAFE TECH Act has been unveiled there have been multiple stakeholders expressing concern with unintended consequences this proposal in its current form has that will likely result in chilling of expression. 

Regardless of your political viewpoint, if you are a tech stakeholder that has ISP capabilities or you are providing services that deal with the exchange of ideas, you should be monitoring this type of legislative action to avoid unnecessary surprises to your business model. We at Lanton Law can help. 

Our legal and policy tools can help offer your organization a clear path forward to navigate what will be changing policies for technology stakeholders. Contact us today to discuss your options.

New York State of the State 2021 Calls for Proposal to Safeguard Data Security Rights

Last month as part of the State of the State 2021, Governor Cuomo announced a comprehensive law around personal data and privacy protections for New York state residents.

So what does this proposal outline?

According to the Governor’s proposal “This law will mandate that companies that collect information on large numbers of New Yorkers disclose the purposes of any data collection and collect only data needed for those purposes. Governor Cuomo will also establish a Consumer Data Privacy Bill of Rights guaranteeing every New Yorker the right to access, control, and erase the data collected from them; the right to nondiscrimination from providers for exercising these rights; and the right to equal access to services.”  

“The proposal also expressly protects sensitive categories of information including health, biometric and location data and creates strong enforcement mechanisms to hold covered entities accountable for the illegal use of consumer data. New York State will work with other states to ensure competition and innovation in the digital marketplace by promoting coordination and consistency among their regulatory policies. 

New York’s proposal seems to be following a trend set by California’s Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act. We believe that we are witnessing a slow moving transition towards similar oversight in other states. 

The increasing demands around data security and data privacy has presented new challenges to business operations and compliance efforts. Not to mention there are new rising risks around consumer data privacy expectations. 

Lanton Law is a national boutique law and lobbying firm that focuses on healthcare/life sciences and technology. We are the dedicated business partner that you need behind you to help you confront the changing regulatory landscape around data. 

If you are an industry stakeholder with questions about the current landscape or if you would like to discuss how your organization’s strategic initiatives might be impacted by either Congress, regulatory agencies or legal decisions, contact us today!

New Congressional Bill Aimed at Tech ISPs

The Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act has been introduced by Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and John Thune (R-South Dakota), which targets Internet Service Providers and attempts to limit their protections under 47 U.S. Code § 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), also called Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. 

The proposed Act points out two critical facts: 

• “Online consumers are not adequately protected in the United States because, with the exception of Federal criminal statutes, providers of interactive computer services are immune from the enforcement of most Federal statutes and regulations.

• The bill among a list of proposed policies also seeks to preserve the internet and other interactive computer services as forums for diversity of political discourse, unique opportunities for cultural development, and myriad avenues for intellectual and commercial activity.”

Specifically, the interactive computer service provider shall provide the following elements:

• reasonably inform users about the types of content that are allowed on the interactive computer service;

• explain the steps the provider takes to

• ensure content complies with the acceptable use policy;

• explain the means by which users can notify the provider of potentially policy-violating content, illegal content, or illegal activity

• include publication of a quarterly transparency report outlining actions taken to enforce the policy

While there are some First Amendment concerns with this legislation, this demonstrates how Section 230 comes under increasing scrutiny by policymakers. It’s a question of when for technology regulation so if you are a technology stakeholder, it is better to be prepared.

Lanton Law is a national boutique law and government affairs firm that focuses on technology and healthcare. If you are an industry stakeholder with questions about the current landscape or if you would like to discuss how your organization’s strategic initiatives might be impacted by either Congress, regulatory agencies or legal decisions, contact us today.

Senator Hawley Proposes New Congressional Legislation Targeting Behavioral Ads

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has recently announced his new legislation titled the Behavioral Advertising Decisions Are Downgrading Services (BAD ADS) Act. This bill proposes to remove Section 230 immunity from Big Tech companies that display manipulative, behavioral ads or provide data to be used for them. Behavioral ads are defined in the legislation. 

It is unclear as to how this ties directly to Section 230 immunity and is different from other Congressional bills that create a nexus between Section 230 and its protections to content policies on websites. This bill would not apply to contextual ads  such as advertising that is directed to a user based on:

• ‘‘(aa) the content of the website, online service, online application, or mobile application to which the user is connected;

• ‘‘(bb) the location of the user, as of the time at which the advertising is directed to the user; or

• ‘‘(cc) the search terms that the user applied to arrive at the website, service, or application to which the user is connected

Regardless of whether this or other legislation gets enacted this year, Section 230 comes under increasing scrutiny by policymakers. It’s a question of when for technology regulation, so if you are a technology stakeholder it is better to be prepared.

Lanton Law is a national boutique law and government affairs firm that focuses on technology and healthcare. If you are an industry stakeholder with questions about the current landscape or if you would like to discuss how your organization’s strategic initiatives might be impacted by either Congress, regulatory agencies or legal decisions, contact us today.

Big Tech Company Executives Pressed On Capitol Hill On Their Market Influence

On July 29th four of the biggest tech companies CEOs testified in front of Congress. Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Sundar Pichai of Google all took questions from the U.S House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law. The hearing which can be viewed here was titled “Online Platforms and Market power, Part 6: Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google.”  

Sadly, there was a lot of political posturing on both sides of the political aisle and not a lot of policy. The main takeaway is that there is still no clear bipartisan antitrust agenda. 

Democrats presented evidence regarding antitrust concerns. It seemed they had pointed questions regarding certain deals such as Amazon's purchase of Ring to control that sector of the market and Facebook's alleged threats against Instagram before its purchase of the company.  

Republicans focused on perceived anti-conservative bias in tech instead of addressing company size and market power. Their questions focused on whether the tech companies will participate in "electioneering" for Joe Biden and grilled Facebook about Twitter's shutdown of Trump Jr.'s account. 

This has been a year-long investigation by this Subcommittee with this testimony capping the investigation. Subcommittee members are still in the process of sending follow-up questions to the CEOs and finalizing their conclusions over the next few weeks. Once they are done the Subcommittee will file a report of its findings. 

This process has been highly politicized, and many tech stakeholders are wondering whether any significant policymaking will get done by the end of the year. While there is reason to be skeptical, there is a highly charged election about to take place, meaning it wouldn’t surprise us if a small step towards technology regulation was accomplished. The bigger question is what happens to tech policy at the start of 2021? 

We continue to see an increase in federal and state policymaking when it comes to technology companies. The threat of looming technology legislation will undoubtedly lead to increased regulation. It’s better to be prepared now by knowing the landscape and preparing your strategic options in order to navigate the increased scrutiny. 

Lanton Law is a national boutique law and government affairs firm that focuses on technology and healthcare. If you are an industry stakeholder with questions about the current landscape or if you would like to discuss how your organization’s strategic initiatives might be impacted by either Congress, regulatory agencies or legal decisions, contact us today. 

The Policy Conversations Around Tik-Tok Warrant Monitoring from Technology Stakeholders

With all the news surrounding the Trump Administration and its complex political and economic relationship with China, some may find it surprising that the latest company suspected to be possibly impacted by the two countries would be TikTok. 

According to its website, TikTok is an app for short-form mobile videos. The company says it has offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo, but the company does have close ties to China through the company’s owner ByteDance; a Beijing-based technology company. TikTok has become more mainstream in the U.S. due to the pandemic, whereby various users including small business owners have been using the app to expand their economic reach. 

The last few months have brought increased scrutiny over the app. Both India and Indonesia have banned the app, while the U.S. Navy and other U.S. armed forces branches have banned the app as well. Most of the concerns have been around the issue of national security and how much user information  is shared with the Chinese government.

TikTok responded to this brewing controversy last year with a statement that addressed the company’s viewpoint on data privacy and security as well as content concerns. In response to the Administration threatening that it is considering a ban on TikTok, the company has been increasing its lobbying presence to hedge against a possible ban.   

Will a possible ban have a chilling effect on U.S. technology companies? Currently, the answer is no. We don’t want to cause controversy by suggesting this, but with the recent activities in Congress, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice that we have been reporting about, warrants that technology stakeholders keep a close watch on how the industry is receiving a lot of policy interests. It is safe to believe that technology policy is on the verge of changing, as technology stakeholders can no longer sit back and think that this industry is immune from regulatory oversight. 

Lanton Law is a national boutique law and government affairs firm that focuses on technology,   healthcare/life sciences and finance. If you are an industry stakeholder with questions about the current landscape or if you would like to discuss how your organization’s strategic initiatives might be impacted by either Congress, regulatory agencies or legal decisions, contact us today. 

New Legislation Targeting Technology Liability Shield Under Section 230

Earlier this year we started our conversation with the technology industry urging stakeholders to be aware of the growing policy attacks on the responsibilities of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) via the technology law 47 U.S. Code § 230. 

The law which is part of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), also called Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, provides ISP’s with federal immunity to any cause of action that seeks to make ISP’s liable for information that originated with a third party service user. 

Specifically, §230 states: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” The additional specifics of this law describe the liability shield that these companies currently enjoy which is further protected by federal preemption law. 

A few weeks back we highlighted how politicians on both sides of the aisle have been more assertive in how tech companies are not living up to their expectations under Section 230. Now in addition to recent U.S. Department of Justice scrutiny, U.S. Senator Hawley (R-MO) has introduced the Limiting Section 230 Immunity to Good Samaritans Act, which seeks to provide accountability for bad actors who abuse the Good Samaritan protections provided under that Act. 

According to the Senator’s press release the bill “would prohibit Big Tech companies from receiving Section 230 immunity unless they update their terms of service to promise to operate in good faith and pay a $5,000 fine (or actual damages, if higher) plus attorney’s fees if they violate that promise.” This legislation makes it easier for Americans to sue tech companies that censor political speech or hide competitor content. This bill mirrors more conservative politicians who feel that tech companies are censoring conservative viewpoints.

Regardless of your political viewpoint, if you are a tech stakeholder that has ISP capabilities or you are providing services that deal with the exchange of ideas, you should be monitoring this type of legislative action to avoid unnecessary surprises to your business model. We at Lanton Law can help. 

Our legal and policy tools can help offer your organization a clear path forward to navigate what will be changing policies for technology stakeholders. Contact us today to discuss your options.     

With the Debate Over Data Privacy Increasing, Senator Gillibrand Proposes Legislation to Create New Data Protection Agency

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has announced the creation of new legislation titled the Data Protection Act. According to the Senator’s press release, the bill would create “the Data Protection Agency (DPA), an independent federal agency that would protect Americans’ data, safeguard their privacy, and ensure data practices are fair and transparent. 

The DPA will have the authority and resources to effectively enforce data protection rules—created either by itself or congress—and would be equipped with a broad range of enforcement tools, including civil penalties, injunctive relief, and equitable remedies. The DPA would promote data protection and privacy innovation across public and private sectors, developing and providing resources such as Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) that minimize or even eliminate the collection of personal data. The U.S. is one of the only democracies, and the only member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), without a federal data protection agency.”

The proposed bill will have three core missions:

• Give Americans control and protection over their own data by creating and enforcing data protection rules

• Maintain the most innovative, successful tech sector in the world by ensuring fair competition within the digital marketplace

• Prepare the American government for the digital age

Governmental oversight into data is showing no signs of slowing down. Gone are the days where you don’t have to worry about regulations in order to operate. If you are a healthcare, technology and financial services stakeholder, data privacy will be the most important issue to overcome within the next 10-20 years. Ensuring against breaches of personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), personally identifiable financial information (PIFI), and other sensitive data will be key to compliance, trust and market competitiveness. Contact Lanton Law so that our experts can use their advocacy and legal services to help you prepare and succeed in a more interconnected world.