Tag Archives: Apple Inc.

German Court Rules Apple’s Privacy Policy Violates German Law

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Hunton & Williams LLP

On April 30, 2013, the regional court of Berlin enjoined Apple Sales International, which is based in Ireland, (“Apple”) from relying on eight of its existing standard data protection clauses in contracts with customers based in Germany. The court also prohibited Apple’s future use of such clauses.

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Tags: Advertisement, Anonymization, Apple Inc., Behavioral Advertising, Cross-Border Data Flow, Data Protection Act, Enforcement, European Union, Geolocation, Germany, International, Marketing, Opt-In Consent, Privacy Policy, Service Provider

California Ruling Finds Song-Beverly Act Does Not Apply to Online Transactions

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Hunton & Williams LLP

On February 4, 2013, the Supreme Court of California examined whether Section 1747.08 of the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act (“Song-Beverly”) prohibits an online retailer from requesting or requiring personal identification information from a customer as a condition to accepting a credit card as payment for an electronically downloadable product. In a split decision, the majority of the court ruled that Song-Beverly does not apply to online purchases in which the product is downloaded electronically.

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Tags: Apple Inc., California, Class Action, Consumer Protection, Litigation, Online Privacy, Payment Card, Personally Identifiable Information, Song-Beverly Act, U.S. State Law

French Data Protection Authority Unveils 2010 Annual Activity Report

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Hunton & Williams LLP

On November 16, 2011, the French Data Protection Authority (the “CNIL”) published its Annual Activity Report for 2010 (the “Report”) highlighting its main 2010 accomplishments and outlining some of its priorities for the upcoming year. This year’s Report covers events that occurred since last year’s publication of the Annual Activity Report for 2009.

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Tags: Apple Inc., CCTV, CNIL, Data Controller, Data Protection Authority, Data Transfer, Employee Monitoring, EU Data Protection Directive, EU Member States, European Union, Facebook, France, Google, International, LinkedIn, Online Privacy, Penalty, Right to Be Forgotten, Social Media, Twitter, Video Surveillance, Workplace Privacy

FTC Announces First Privacy Settlement Involving Mobile Applications

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Hunton & Williams LLP

On August 15, 2011, the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with W3 Innovations, LLC, doing business as Broken Thumbs Apps (“W3”) for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and the FTC’s COPPA Rule.  This marks the FTC’s first privacy settlement involving mobile applications. Continue reading…

Tags: Apple Inc., Consent Order, Consumer Protection, COPPA, Enforcement, Federal Trade Commission, Information Security, Jon Leibowitz, Penalty

Senators Franken and Blumenthal Co-Sponsor Location Privacy Protection Act

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Hunton & Williams LLP

On June 15, 2011, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2011 (the “Act”).  As we reported previously, Senator Franken is chairman of the newly-created Senate subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law.   In his press release, Senator Franken explained that the Act is designed to “close current loopholes in federal law” while giving customers the ability to learn about and prevent the collection of their location information.  The Act would apply only to non-government entities and would not impact law-enforcement activities.  At a May 10, 2011 hearing, both Google and Apple were questioned about their privacy practices, and Franken subsequently challenged them to require their application developers to adopt clear and understandable privacy policies.

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Tags: Al Franken, Apple Inc., Class Action, Consumer Protection, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Enforcement, Google, Legislation, Litigation, Privacy Policy, Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Federal Law, Video Privacy Protection Act

Lawsuits Allege Apple Applications Sent Personal Information to Third Parties

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Hunton & Williams LLP

In late December 2010, consumers filed two class action lawsuits against Apple Inc., claiming that several applications they downloaded from Apple’s App Store sent their personal information to third parties without their consent.  Specifically, the consumers claim that Apple allowed third party advertising networks to follow user activity through the Unique Device Identifiers that Apple assigns each device that downloads applications.  The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, also named several application developers such as Pandora and The Weather Channel as co-defendants. Continue reading…

Tags: Advertisement, Apple Inc., Behavioral Advertising, California, Class Action, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Consumer Protection, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Federal Trade Commission, Google, Marketing, Online Privacy, U.S. State Law

Failure to Secure Wireless Network Defeats ECPA Claims

Posted on February 12, 2010 by Hunton & Williams LLP

A computer user’s failure to secure his wireless network contributed to the defeat of his claim that a neighbor’s unwelcome access to his files violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”).  The ECPA places restrictions on unauthorized interception of, and access to, electronic communications.

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Tags: Apple Inc., Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Information Security, Online Privacy