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It is that time of year when we look back to see what tech-law issues took up most of our time this year and look ahead to see what the emerging issues are for 2020.

Data: The Issues of the Year

Data presented a wide variety of challenging legal issues in 2019. Data is solidly entrenched as a key asset in our economy, and as a result, the issues around it demanded a significant level of attention.

  • Clearly, privacy and data security-related data issues were dominant in 2019. The GDPR, CCPA and other privacy regulations garnered much consideration and resources, and with GDPR enforcement ongoing and CCPA enforcement right around the corner, the coming year will be an important one to watch. As data generation and collection technologies continued to evolve, privacy issues evolved as well.  In 2019, we saw many novel issues involving mobile, biometric and connected cars. Facial recognition technology generated a fair amount of litigation, and presented concerns regarding the possibility of intrusive governmental surveillance (prompting some municipalities, such as San Francisco, to ban its use by government agencies).
  • Because data has proven to be so valuable, innovators continue to develop new and sometimes controversial technological approaches to collecting data. The legal issues abound.  For example, in the past year, we have been advising on the implications of an ongoing dispute between the City Attorney of Los Angeles and an app operator over geolocation data collection, as well as a settlement between the FTC and a personal email management service over access to “e-receipt” data.  We have entertained multiple questions from clients about the unsettled legal terrain surrounding web scraping and have been closely following developments in this area, including the blockbuster hiQ Ninth Circuit ruling from earlier this year. As usual, the pace of technological innovation has outpaced the ability for the law to keep up.
  • Data security is now regularly a boardroom and courtroom issue, with data breaches, phishing, ransomware attacks and identity theft (and cyberinsurance) the norm. Meanwhile, consumers are experiencing deeper and deeper “breach fatigue” with every breach notice they receive. While the U.S. government has not yet been able to put into place general national data security legislation, states and certain regulators are acting to compel data collectors to take reasonable measures to protect consumer information (e.g., New York’s newly-enacted SHIELD Act) and IoT device manufacturers to equip connected devices with certain security features appropriate to the nature and function of the devices secure (e.g., California’s IoT security law, which becomes effective January 1, 2020). Class actions over data breaches and security lapses are filed regularly, with mixed results.
  • Many organizations have focused on the opportunistic issues associated with new and emerging sources of data. They seek to use “big data” – either sourced externally or generated internally – to advance their operations.  They are focused on understanding the sources of the data and their lawful rights to use such data.  They are examining new revenue opportunities offered by the data, including the expansion of existing lines, the identification of customer trends or the creation of new businesses (including licensing anonymized data to others).
  • Moreover, data was a key asset in many corporate transactions in 2019. Across the board in M&A, private equity, capital markets, finance and some real estate transactions, data was the subject of key deal points, sometimes intensive diligence, and often difficult negotiations. Consumer data has even become a national security issue, as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), expanded under a 2018 law, began to scrutinize more and more technology deals involving foreign investment, including those involving sensitive personal data.
  • For more information about developments over the past year on data-related issues, and to keep abreast on new developments in the future, you may want to subscribe to Proskauer’s privacy blog, privacylaw.proskauer.com. You may also want to review our Practical Law article “Trends in Privacy and Data Security:2018” and get a hold of our update that will publish in winter 2020.

I am not going out on a limb in saying that 2020 and beyond promise many interesting developments in “big data,” privacy and data security.

Yes, it’s time for the end-of-year blog post – a look back at interesting issues of 2018 and a look forward to what we see coming down the pike in the new year.

The Look Back

  • In the past year, blockchain buzz was everywhere. Although still early, blockchain has in fact began to show promise as a technology bringing efficiency and cost reduction to many business operations. In 2018, many industries tested the technology and started pilot programs with an eye to replacing or supplementing traditional client-server systems with a distributed ledger-based system. 2019 promises much more in the adoption of blockchain. For continuing coverage of some of the more novel issues that blockchain presents, subscribe to our Blockchain and the Law blog.
  • “Web scraping” (also known as spidering and crawling) remained at the forefront in 2018 as companies used scraping for purposes such as consumer-facing data aggregation, real-time e-commerce analytics (e.g., dynamic pricing strategies), competitive intelligence, user sentiment analysis, etc. 2018 produced many important scraping decisions in the courts, including those about CFAA liability and the intersection of scraping and software licensing, and we await the Ninth Circuit’s decision in the closely-watched hiQ appeal, which will hopefully address a number of important open issues presented by the practice.
  • Privacy and data security continued to be a hot-button boardroom issue this year. The GDPR became effective, and California passed major privacy legislation which will take effect in 2020. The almost daily announcement of data security breaches continues to spawn class action litigation, testing the principles of standing after Spokeo. The federal government has pushed multiple initiatives to improve the nation’s cyber defenses. The wave of litigation under the Illinois biometric privacy law (BIPA) against Illinois employers and businesses persisted in 2018, and the continued viability of such suits may hinge on an upcoming ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court, as well as the outcome in California courts regarding the BIPA actions against social media entities.  See our Privacy Law Blog for more discussion on 2018 privacy and data security developments.