This post was originally published to Seyfarth’s Gadgets, Gigabytes & Goodwill blog.
Last week, a joint statement was issued by four federal agencies expressing their apprehension regarding the use of AI for discriminatory or anticompetitive purposes and outlining their plans for regulation. This comes on the heels of Elon Musk requesting a “pause” in AI development and meeting with
Continue Reading Regulation of AI – the Path Ahead
This article was originally published on Seyfarth’s Gadgets, Gigabytes & Goodwill blog.
If there is anything movies like The Terminator have shown us, it’s that AI systems might one day become self-aware and wreak havoc. But until Skynet becomes self-aware, let’s enjoy the AI toy that is quickly becoming a part of our daily lives. Some Samsung employees recently discovered that playing with AI models like ChatGPT may have unexpected consequences. These employees used ChatGPT for work and shared sensitive data, such as source code and meeting minutes. This incident was labeled as a “data leak” due to fears that ChatGPT would disclose the data to the public once it is trained on the data. In response, many companies took action, such as banning or restricting access, or creating ChatGPT data disclosure policies.
This post was originally published as a Seyfarth Legal Update.
In a January 11, 2023 op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, President Joe Biden urged “Democrats and Republicans to come together to pass strong bipartisan legislation to hold Big Tech accountable.” He warned that the “risks Big Tech poses for ordinary Americans are clear. Big Tech companies collect huge amounts of data” about technology users, including “the places we go,” and argued that “we need serious federal protections for Americans’ privacy. That means clear limits on how companies can collect, use and share highly personal data,” including location data.
This post was originally published on Seyfarth’s Gadgets, Gigabytes & Goodwill blog.
Ransomware attacks have become one of the most common and pervasive cybercrimes perpetrated against US companies. A bad actor, often from overseas, will gain access to upload malware onto a company’s network storage or application platforms that encrypts all files it can access. A message or text file is usually left with instructions on how to contact the attacker to pay a ransom for the decryption key. In the worst case, a ransomware attack can freeze the business operations by effectively removing access to the company’s critical systems and rendering them useless. Aside from the business impact, what legal implications are created by a ransomware attack?
Continue Reading Ransomware Attacks: Harmless Annoyances or Catastrophic Events?
Earlier this year, Seyfarth Shaw partnered to issue the 2022 Future Employer survey to clients and contacts. We surveyed in-house legal and business leaders to find out how they are thinking about the “Future of Work.” This was an important continuation of Seyfarth’s thought leadership endeavors related to futurist legal-thinking and the future of work, which we formalized five years ago with the inaugural survey in 2017. With respect to the protection of company data and intellectual property, the survey results highlight the need for companies to have thoughtful policies and procedures that address data usage and retention in a hybrid work environment.
March 31, 2022
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Pacific
12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Mountain
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Central
2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Eastern
Please join Seyfarth for a webinar on what employers need to know regarding the importance of data privacy and the impacts of the California Privacy Rights Act to your organization. Presenters
Continue Reading Upcoming Webinar! How the California Privacy Rights Act Impacts Your Business in 2022
From court closures and the way judges conduct appearances and trials to the expected wave of lawsuits across a multitude of areas and industries, the COVID-19 outbreak is having a notable impact in the litigation space—and is expected to for quite some time.
To help navigate the litigation landscape, we are kicking off a webinar series that will take a
Continue Reading Post-Pandemic Litigation Webinar Series
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses around the world had been bracing for the financial and operational impact of the new California Consumers Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which took effect January 1, 2020. Despite existing and ongoing uncertainty around how to comply and interpret the law, the courts had already began seeing private class actions brought under the CCPA (or using the CCPA as a placeholder with Business and Professions Code Section 17200 and tort claims) filed in February—each presenting interesting and far-reaching legal questions about the new law.
Continue Reading The Impact of COVID-19 on the California Consumer Privacy Act
Seyfarth attorneys Robert Milligan, John Tomaszewski, and Darren Dummit are presenting “The California Consumer Privacy Act – What It Is and What Clients Need to Know, Particularly in Light of COVID-19,” a webinar for ITechLaw on April 7, 2020, at 9 a.m. Central.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect on January 1, 2020, and it establishes new
Continue Reading Seyfarth Attorneys to Present “The California Consumer Privacy Act – What It Is and What Clients Need to Know, Particularly in Light of COVID-19” Webinar
Several high profile ransomware attacks have recently rocked the franchise world fomenting uncertainty and anxiety about franchisors’ legal obligations and liability. Ransomware attacks essentially kidnap a company by shutting down its systems and holdings its data hostage until a ransom fee is paid. In addition to the quantifiable hard costs of paying ransom and hiring experts to mitigate damage and re/build cyber defenses, ransomware victims can be damaged by: (a) third-party liability to the customers and other original owners of compromised data; (b) interruption of business operations during the course of and recovery from an attack; and (c) injury to reputation value in the loss of consumer confidence, appearance of incompetence, and customer attrition. In today’s digital golden era, data is among the world’s most valuable assets, earning the tagline: “data is the new oil.” It therefore comes as no surprise that cybersecurity, which has been a hot topic for years, is garnering increased attention and resources from businesses of all sizes and stages. Yet with each new development in defensive cybersecurity, cybercriminals come up with just as many ways to get around those defenses.
Continue Reading Franchisors: Are You Covering Your Digital Assets?