Recent News:
Andrew Baer was quoted in an article published in Bloomberg Law discussing Microsoft’s potential acquisition of Bytedance’s TikTok, and the company’s ability to resolve the attendant privacy and security concerns in advance of Donald Trump’s September 15, 2020, deadline to reach a deal.
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As the technology sector continues to evolve, and new rules develop across different platforms and industries, the importance of tech- and business-savvy counsel becomes increasingly important. Recognizing that technology law is integral to businesses of every size, every stage, and across every industry, Cozen O’Connor’s multidisciplinary Technology, Privacy & Data Security team serves as a one-stop shop to help clients — ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies — navigate technology transactions, as well as regulatory, litigation, and risk management issues.
Our clients include global players in adtech, fintech, edtech, and martech; health care; retail; the financial industry; cloud computing; data brokerage; blockchain; and cosmetics. We also represent online ad networks, software and mobile app developers, media monitors, digital interactive agencies, international e-commerce companies, and major telecommunications and cable service providers, among others.
Transactional Services
Our transactional team addresses a wide range of cyberlaw, privacy, and data security issues and technology- and internet-related transactions. We handle strategic outsourcing/licensing, optimizing digital assets, internal data management and privacy governance, as well as media M&A and other corporate-level technology transactions. We also handle buy- and sell-side technology transactions that typically involve cloud computing, data privacy, IP, software, and security, and interactive marketing regulatory compliance.
Additional transactional services include:
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drafting and negotiating software, IT services, data, and digital media agreements;
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advising clients in the use and protection of IP assets;
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counseling clients on the protection of personal data and other sensitive data assets; and
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inbound and outbound technology licensing and acquisition.
Regulatory Services
The regulatory landscape surrounding data protection and cybersecurity is ever-changing and fraught with landmines. One incident of data loss, breach, or cyberattack can undermine years of good will and leave clients with daunting financial, legal, and reputational challenges. When disaster strikes, companies need a true crisis manager at the helm to stem the damage and ensure that the remediation strategy complies with all relevant laws and regulations.
We provide advice and counsel on the full panoply of issues clients face in this highly regulated space, including but not limited to complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). We also advise on international data transfers and assist U.S. companies to comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive.
Additional regulatory services include:
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drafting privacy policies and privacy-related disclosures, and structuring privacy and security by design;
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assisting with advertising and marketing privacy (including retargeting, cross-device tracking, cookie matching, and identity resolution);
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providing advice and counsel on compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL), Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines (including privacy and data protection, advertising disclosures, endorsement and testimonial guidelines, and native advertising guidelines);
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handling contracts with all aspects of the digital advertising ecosystem, including DSPs, SSPs, DMPs, yield optimization tools, verification tools, ad servers, list management, and lead generator/aggregator and performance marketing contracts; and
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evaluating and managing vendor privacy and security.
In the event of a data privacy or security breach, our attorneys routinely conduct immediate forensic and recovery operations, send notifications, arrange for customer outreach, communicate with government officials, protect clients from liability, and craft public messages. We also counsel clients on investigations by the FTC, by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights (OCR), and under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
In addition, Cozen O’Connor’s government affairs professionals closely monitor potential changes in state and federal policy regarding data privacy and electronic information security. A leader in policy reform, Cozen O’Connor works with clients to ensure policy compliance in this ever-changing regulatory landscape and also routinely represents clients before regulators and legislators.
Litigation Services
Our team of skilled litigators has successfully represented clients in privacy and data-related class actions, multiparty and individual cases in jurisdictions across the country as well as in front of federal regulatory agencies, such as the FTC. We work hand-in-hand with the firm’s nationally recognized State Attorneys General practice and Public Strategies practice to ensure our clients respond to state investigations and are getting up-to-date guidance in this ever changing area.
Risk Management Services
Our group also has extensive experience in the fast growing and ever-evolving cyber risk market. As a long-time leader in the insurance bar, Cozen O’Connor attorneys have helped develop first- and third-party cyber/privacy/tech policies, errors and omissions insurance, and cybercrime policy language. We also advise on coverage under all first- and third-party lines of insurance, including cyber and technology, and have been involved in managing some of the largest consumer data breaches on behalf of our insurer clients.
Wherever technology meets the law, Cozen O’Connor is waiting at the crossroads with a team of experienced counsel ready to help.
July 15, 2020
Brian Kint contributed an article to The Legal Intelligencer discussing how courts have increasingly been called upon to examine whether organizations have a duty under the common law to protect and secure the personal data of their employees, clients and customers.
March 30, 2020
Bill Gericke and Deb Winokur discuss lawyers and law firm's ethical obligations when working remotely and outsourcing work.
March 26, 2020
Matt Siegel gives companies seven tips they should keep in mind as their employees try to do from home what they would have otherwise done at the office.
March 12, 2020
Trevor McGuinness discusses ways to avoid email scammers and hackers who may use the coronavirus as a way of accessing computers and personal information.
February 13, 2020
Brian Kint published an article to Bloomberg Law discussing one of APEC's initiatives, the APEC Privacy Framework, a principles-based privacy standard first approved by the APEC economies in 2004 and reworked in 2015.
February 10, 2020
More and more companies are experiencing crippling data breaches. We analyzed recent state Attorney General and FTC enforcement actions to identify eight data security best practices that companies can adopt to mitigate the likelihood of a breach which can be found in this infographic.
February 03, 2020
Ann-Marie Luciano, Chris Allen, and Bryan Mosca published an article in Bloomberg Law on February 3, 2020, sharing their observations on trends in state Attorney General activity in 2019, and the enforcement priorities they expect to see AGs focus on in 2020.
November 19, 2019
Google has confirmed that it is working with Ascension, one of the nation’s largest health systems in a project that will involve the health data of millions of Americans. Google and Ascension have partnered in a project to store and analyze patient data with the intended goal of using Google’s...
October 14, 2019
On September 26, 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Dunkin’ Brands, Inc., the franchisor of Dunkin’ Donuts (“Dunkin’”).
The lawsuit involves security issues surrounding Dunkin’s stored value cards, which customers can use to purchase Dunkin’ food and...
September 04, 2019
FERPA is a U.S. law, passed in 1974, that protects the privacy of student educational records. FERPA applies to all schools, from elementary schools to postsecondary education institutions, that receive federal funds under a program of the U.S. Department of Education. FERPA and the regulations...
August 26, 2019
Brian Kint contributed an article to Legaltech news discussing his thoughts on privacy policies and how it affects our world today.
August 23, 2019
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has written the latest chapter of the ongoing saga of Article III standing for violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). BIPA requires, among other things, that before collecting a person’s biometric information, a company must...
July 19, 2019
With so much attention being paid to the impending California Consumer Privacy Act, it can be easy to forget that other states have privacy and data security laws too. And those laws change routinely, with potentially significant impacts on businesses. Here is a quick rundown of changes to state...
July 18, 2019
Brian Kint published an article to The Legal Intelligencer in which he talks about two cases, one from the U.S. Supreme Court (Spokeo v. Robins, 136 S.Ct. 1540 (2016)) and one from the Illinois Supreme Court (Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment, — N.E.3d —, 2019 IL 123186 (2019)).
July 15, 2019
GLBA, sometimes called the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, is a U.S. banking law that has important privacy and data security requirements for institutions that are subject to the law. The law applies to “any institution the business of which is engaging in financial...
June 26, 2019
A couple of months ago, I wrote about how a jury found multilevel marketing company ViSalus, Inc. responsible for making over 1.8 million robocalls in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Given the TCPA’s minimum statutory damages of $500 per call, ViSalus was looking at a minimum of...
June 25, 2019
I wear a fitness tracker. I rarely take it off. Throughout the course of the day, it collects a bevy of information about me: my heart rate, my exercise habits, the length and quality of my sleep. When aggregated and observed over time, this information certainly reveals quite a bit of insight...
June 24, 2019
Brian Kint explains how ill-crafted privacy policies can put a company and its customers’ data at significant risk and gives readers five of the top ways privacy policies are deficient.
May 30, 2019
A suburban Philadelphia county is facing a judgment of up to $67 million after a Pennsylvania federal jury found that it violated the Pennsylvania Criminal History Record Information Act.
Pennsylvania’s Criminal History Record Information Act (“CHRIA”) governs the dissemination of records held by...
May 09, 2019
One of the first questions a company must answer after it discovers and remediates a data breach is, “What do we tell our customers?” Companies may delay publicly announcing a data breach out of fear that doing so will harm their reputation with customers, leading to a loss of business. They may...
April 18, 2019
On April 12, 2019, an Oregon federal jury returned a Friday evening verdict in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action that could put the defendant on the hook for $925 million in damages.
The TCPA makes it unlawful to make a telephone call to any cell phone or residential...
April 05, 2019
Well thought-out internal privacy policies and procedures are an essential part of any company’s information management program. These internal policies should not be confused with a company’s external privacy notice, which informs the company’s customers as to how it may process, store, and...
March 22, 2019
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday remanded a class action against Google so that the lower courts could determine whether any of the named plaintiffs have standing under Spokeo, Inc. v. Robbins.
The underlying suit alleged violations of the Stored Communications Act (“SCA”). The SCA...
March 12, 2019
A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit recently affirmed a district court ruling that dismissed a suit for violation of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003 (FACTA) for lack of Article III standing. The plaintiff, Ahmed Kamal, alleged that receipts he received from J. Crew showed...
March 05, 2019
With all of the hubbub swirling around Capitol Hill last week with the Michael Cohen hearings, you can’t be blamed if you missed the fact that two important congressional hearings on privacy and data protection took place as well, one in the House and one in the Senate.
First, on February 26,...
March 01, 2019
On February 27, the FTC announced that the operators of the video social networking application Musical.ly, now known as TikTok, agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle allegations that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). According to the FTC, this is the largest civil...
February 13, 2019
Since the 1970’s, fair information practices (FIPs) or fair information privacy practices (FIPPs) have formed the framework around which organizations structure their policies on data collection, use, disclosure, and retention. The cornerstone of individual privacy rights under the FIPs is notice...
February 04, 2019
COPPA is a U.S. law enacted by Congress in 1998 to address concerns regarding the online collection and disclosure of children’s personal information. Children (defined by COPPA as individuals under the age of 13) may not appreciate the significance of sharing their personal information online....
January 29, 2019
On January 25, 2019, in Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entm’t Corp., the Illinois Supreme Court held that an individual is an “aggrieved” party under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) and may seek damages absent an allegation of harm beyond a violation of the rights conferred by the...
March 03, 2016
Jillian Thornton Flax and Abby Sacunas, both members of Cozen O'Connor's Products Liability practice, discuss the FDA's new guidance on cybersecurity risks for medical devices in Corporate Counsel.
August 05, 2015
Jason Bonk and Calli Jo Padilla discuss the importance of implementing, enforcing and training on policies reflecting the best practices to protect companies against the increasing threat of cyberhacking and privacy breaches.
July 23, 2015
Jennifer Brandt discusses the Ashley Madison hacking scandal and explains how before using a website, posting on social media, or sending an email, consider the ramifications, and consider whether the private information you are providing is really secure.
June 30, 2015
David Walton and Leigh Ann Benson discuss the importance of employers preventing cybersecurity incidents and what the outcome of the Supreme Court case Spokeo v. Robins would mean for class actions brought by their employees.
August 21, 2014
David Walton, vice chair of Cozen O'Connor's Labor & Employment department, authored an article for Law360 titled, ''Big Data's Potential Disparate Impact Problem.'' David argues that big data analytics may soon become ''the backbone for all personnel decisions.'' However, he cautions employers to ensure that protected categories are treated fairly, as ''Blind reliance on big data can lead to major disparate impact issues.''
April 28, 2014
In a series of articles originally published by InsideCounsel Magazine, David J. Walton discusses the concept of big data and explores its impact on the way we conduct business
April 25, 2014
David Walton, vice chair of Cozen O’Connor’s Labor & Employment department, authored an article for InsideCounsel titled, “You Thought ESI was complicated – Now add big data.” Walton discusses the difficulties lawyers can face when dealing with electronically saved information and how they are increasingly more difficult with the addition of big data
April 11, 2014
David Walton, vice chair of Cozen O’Connor’s Labor & Employment department, authored an article for InsideCounsel, in which he discusses the ways, “big data has sparked a revolution in how corporate America conducts research, identifies customers, advertises itself, and pursues profits.”
April 07, 2014
Camille Miller, co-chair of the Intellectual Property Department, and Chanel Lattimer, associate in the Intellectual Property Department, discuss how Microsoft has received mixed reactions in their efforts to fight online fraud.
March 28, 2014
As companies realize the benefits of big data on their research & development, marketing, sales, branding, and revenue growth, they will increasingly have to reckon with its risks. Utilizing and monetizing big data raises enormous legal questions and potential liabilities. The most salient of these legal issues, at least in the near term, revolve around privacy, regulatory compliance, and duty to intervene.
March 14, 2014
Today, almost every large company collects data about its customers — reams and reams of raw, unstructured data. And they aren’t storing it for posterity. They are using it to do what businesses always try to do: Sell more widgets. More specifically, companies are using big data to identify new customers, advertise more effectively, and develop new products and services.
March 13, 2014
On February 21, 2014, a New York state trial court judge ruled that Zurich American Insurance Company has no duty to defend the Sony Corporation in lawsuits relating to a 2011 cyberattack on its PlayStation network. This decision is among the first in the country to address coverage issues for large scale data security breaches. Judge Jeffrey Oing rendered an immediate decision after hearing oral argument, recognizing the issue’s importance and the likelihood of an appeal.
March 07, 2014
In an article titled “Technology: All databases are not created equal and counsel should know the difference,” Dave Walton, vice chair of Cozen O’Connor’s Labor & Employment Department and co-chair of the firm’s E-Discovery Task Force, discusses big data analytics and the history of data management and analysis to aid in understanding and interpreting these analytics.
February 14, 2014
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said that “big data” will have a bigger impact than the Internet. Consider how the Internet completely changed our lives. It’s hard to imagine anything, let alone the vague concept of “big data,” having that type of impact.Yet, if you have read any article the past year on a legal technology issue, you have undoubtedly heard about big data. There’s still a lot of confusion about big data, its power, its potential, and what it means for lawyers. This article is the first in a series that will explore these issues and illustrate why big data really is (and will continue to be) a big deal for the legal profession.
May 14, 2013
Magistrate Judge Westmore recommended that the U.S. District Court for Northern California award Facebook $2.8 million in damages from typosquatters under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). Facebook v. Cyber2Media, Inc. et al., Case No. 4:11-cv-03619, (N.D.Ca., April 30, 2013).
March 26, 2013
Last week, in Tyler v. Michaels Stores, Inc., the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts responded to certified questions presented by the district court and interpreted a Massachusetts statute to reflect the state’s interest in protecting consumer privacy. No. SJC-11145, 2013 Mass. LEXIS 40 (Mass. Mar. 11, 2013). In particular, the court held that a consumer’s zip code constitutes personal identification information, and that a consumer can bring an action under the relevant statute absent a claim of identify fraud.
March 07, 2013
On January 25, 2013, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) published the long-awaited omnibus final regulation governing health data privacy, security and enforcement (Omnibus Rule). The Omnibus Rule is a group of regulations that finalizes four sets of proposed or interim final rules, including changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules mandated by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and proposed in 2010; changes to the interim final breach notification rule; modifications to the interim final enforcement rule; and implementation of changes to the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA). The Omnibus Rule goes into effect on March 26, 2013, and compliance is required by September 23, 2013. As expected, the Omnibus Rule did not finalize the May 31, 2011 proposed regulation regarding accounting for disclosures.
February 20, 2013
Little more than a week after reports of cyber attacks targeted at the Department of Energy, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, President Obama declared in his State of the Union address that these forms of attacks on the nation’s critical infrastructure are rapidly growing and present “real threats to our security and our economy.”
July 20, 2012
First Circuit Court of Appeals Holds Bank’s Online Security Measures “Commercially Unreasonable” in Landmark Decision - Global Insurance Group Alert - In a landmark decision, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals held in PATCO Construction Company, Inc. v. People's United Bank, No. 11-2031 (1st Cir. July 3, 2012) that People's United Bank (d/b/a Ocean Bank) was required to reimburse its customer, PATCO Construction Co., for approximately $580,000 that had been stolen from PATCO's bank account...
December 01, 2011
Recent media reports of cyber intrusions, data thefts and computer system malfunctions involving large, high-profile companies such as Sony PlayStation, Citigroup and Lockheed’s Security Vendor, RSA, have led a rapidly growing number of companies to consider the necessity of insurance coverage for technology and cyber privacy risks.
September 01, 2011
Increasing reports of cyber intrusions, data theft and computer-system malfunctions have led a rapidly growing number of companies to purchase insurance coverage to protect themselves from technology and cyber-privacy risks.
As our technology-driven economy continues to evolve and businesses become more reliant on electronic communication and data storage, they are developing a heightened awareness that an unauthorized intrusion could endanger their tangible and intangible assets (including intellectual property) and, in many cases, their reputation and ability to conduct business.
December 21, 2010
The Dos and Don'ts of Navigating the Cloud: a Business Guide for Cloud Computing - Corporate Counsel -
August 24, 2010
Cyber - Identity Theft: Our Children At Risk - Insurance Coverage Alert! - Interviewing for your first job as a teenager is as exciting as it is intimidating. The interview proceeds flawlessly, and you start to count the dollar signs as you await the job offer. But, imagine your surprise when you are informed that you did not get the job because your background check revealed that you are more than $75,000 in debt and five years behind in child support payments for your 11-year-old child—a terrifying thought considering you are only 16 years old.
January 18, 2010
A New Era in HIPAA Enforcement: Connecticut Attorney General Files First HITECH Act Suit - Health Law Alert! - Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has filed a lawsuit against Health Net of Connecticut, Inc. for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) following Health Net’s loss of protected health information (“PHI”) and other personally identifiable information.
March 03, 2009
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Sweeping Changes to HIPAA Put Business Associates in the Spotlight - Health Law Alert! - On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH” or the “Act”), as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Act made
sweeping changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) and the Privacy and Security Rules promulgated under HIPAA. This Alert focuses
primarily on Subtitle D of HITECH, which includes important
October 01, 2008
HHS' First Resolution Agreement for Alleged HIPAA Violations and What it Means for You - Health Law Alert! - The Department of Health and Human Services
(“HHS”) has entered into its first resolution
agreement with a covered entity to settle alleged
violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (“HIPAA”) privacy and security rules.1 According to HHS, the resolution agreement with Providence Health & Services (“Providence”), a Seattle-based not-for-profit health system, addresses a series
August 04, 2020
Andrew Baer was quoted in an article published in Bloomberg Law discussing Microsoft’s potential acquisition of Bytedance’s TikTok, and the company’s ability to resolve the attendant privacy and security concerns in advance of Donald Trump’s September 15, 2020, deadline to reach a deal.
May 27, 2020
Continuing the firm’s strategic expansion of complex litigation and investigations practices and the premier Technology, Privacy and Data Security Team
May 05, 2020
Pugliese’s arrival follows the firm’s recent expansion of its tech and privacy law practice in Philadelphia with the addition of venture and tech attorneys from Baer Crossey McDemus LLC.
May 04, 2020
Andrew Baer, Michael Crossey, and Christopher McDemus will stretch the firm’s reach within the global technology, and emerging growth business communities.
April 14, 2020
Brian Kint was quoted in Legaltech news discussing how various governments have turned to private entities to help create COVID-19 tracking phone solutions.
April 10, 2020
Greg Fliszar was quoted in a search & news article discussing what information should be released in the interest of public health or safety and what information should remain classified during the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 09, 2020
Brian Kint was quoted in a Compliance Week article discussing the privacy concerns behind google offering user location data to health official's seeking to track peoples behavior during the stay-at-home orders.
April 08, 2020
Matthew Siegel was quoted on Satoshi Nakamoto Blog discussing how countries are using mobile phone tracking to help fight pandemics, and the privacy side behind this.
April 03, 2020
Matthew Siegel was quoted in a Law360 article discussing how Zoom shares and secures personal data.
March 10, 2020
Brian Kint was quoted in Corporate Counsel discussing the information that hackers can access through email addresses.
February 21, 2020
Brian Kint was quoted in HR Magazine discussing different ways to avoid cyberattacks and the types of companies at risk.
February 14, 2020
Brian Kint was quoted in a Compliance Week article discussing the revisions that were made to the proposed regulations implementing the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
February 11, 2020
Brian Kint was quoted in Protocol news discussing the privacy app, Jumbo.
January 08, 2020
Ann-Marie Luciano and Jawaria Gilani published an article in the January 8 edition of CyberSecurity Law Report setting out practical steps companies can take to reduce the likelihood of a data breach.
December 30, 2019
Joseph Tate was featured in a Legaltech news article that discussed four places where e-discovery made the news in 2019.
November 22, 2019
David Walton was interviewed by Knowledge@Wharton, the Wharton School's online journal of business research and analysis, on the use of data analytics in the legal profession.
November 06, 2019
Joseph Tate was quoted in Legaltech news discussing Google's petition for a protective order against a Texas Attorney General, who is leading a multistate antitrust investigation against the company.
October 16, 2019
Cozen O’Connor sponsored the NetDiligence ninth annual Cyber Claims Study.
September 04, 2019
Greg Fliszar discussed with Law.com how health care providers are handling the rising number of serious data breaches that affect patients.
August 28, 2019
Best Lawyers selected 138 Cozen O’Connor lawyers from 21 of the firm’s national offices for inclusion in the 2020 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.
July 30, 2019
Brian Kint discusses the latest breach of private information including the 100 million credit card holders who have been compromised.
June 14, 2019
Matthew Siegel, a member of Cozen O’Connor’s Privacy & Data Security practice, was named to the Rutgers University Cybersecurity Certificate Program Advisory Board.
December 19, 2015
Greg Fliszar and Ryan Blaney, members of Cozen O’Connor’s Health Law practice, discuss best practices for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) on Forbes.com.
November 01, 2015
David Walton, co-chair of Cozen O’Connor’s Privacy, Data & Cybersecurity Industry Team, discusses his take on communications strategies and data preservation at the firm in Legal Tech News.