Password Sharing and Privacy Shields

This week’s news roundup is dominated by the Ninth Circuit and the European Union.  The EU parliament has approved the Privacy Shield that replaces the Safe Harbor.  Michael Vatis, Alan Cohn and I ask whether companies should seek protection under what may prove to be a pretty leaky Shield.  And the EU has approved cybersecurity rules for critical industries and verdammte amerikanische Unternehmen … er, digital service providers.  You may not like the EU penchant for regulation as a first resort, but Alan and I conclude that the initiative on cybersecurity standard-setting may finally have moved to Brussels.

In Ninth Circuit news, the Nosal case has come back for another round of appellate decision-making, and this time the decision goes against Mr. Nosal.  Michael and I debate whether sharing a password should lead to criminal penalties.  In other news, the lib/left continues its campaign to impose a warrant requirement on reuse of section 702 data.  They’ve already lost in two courts, and my guess from oral argument in US v. Mohammud is that they won’t do better in the third.  

Elsewhere, Russia has finally adopted its aggressive new law regulating digital service providers in the name of fighting terrorism. The FCC privacy regs attract some support from other agencies, notably the FBI and Secret Service.  Silent Circle, already silently circling the drain, has dropped its faddish warrant canary “for business reasons.”  And kudos to Yingmob for its new business model; the Chinese company seems to have combined legitimate adtech business lines with a line of malware that has infected ten million Android phones.  No word yet on whether Yingmob employees can take a break from writing malware to play foosball.  

Our interview with Will Hurd will follow later in the week.

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The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.