China’s New Cybersecurity Law Implications for Digital Trade and America’s App Developers
Yesterday, China introduced its new Cybersecurity Law, a long debated law that will impose tough regulations, introduce serious uncertainties, and possibly prevent market access for American companies conducting business in China. This law is particularly toxic for ACT | The App Association’s app developer and small business members seeking access to digital markets and consumers in China. Frustratingly, the law includes onerous data localization requirements and uses extraordinarily vague language when outlining important provisions, such as when Chinese law enforcement [...]
Member Mondays: Reinventing Learning Apps
For this edition of Member Mondays, we're highlighting an App Association member that has created an innovative platform for learning apps. Scene: A teacher is running behind on her lesson plan. She needs to come up with a quick and easy activity for her students that can reinforce a wide variety of classroom concepts in a fun and engaging way. What if I told you that there was a platform that allowed teachers and parents to create apps tailored to [...]
Small Tech Makes Big Impact on Lawful Access
During AppCon, ACT | The App Association’s annual fly-in, 50 App Association members stormed Capitol Hill to deliver a strong message that Congress must update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The ambiguity in current law, enacted in 1986, troubles App Association members, all of whom are small- and medium-sized companies. Every day 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created, and nearly all of our members provide apps or platforms that require the transmission, storage, or processing of that data [...]
National Small Business Week : Small App Developers Making Big Impacts
As the United States celebrates National Small Business Week, ACT | The App Association recognizes the contributions of the thousands of small app and software developer businesses across the country. Our members create technology products and services that serve every industry of the American economy – from manufacturing to healthcare to education. To highlight the growing and dynamic app economy to which our members and other small technology companies contribute, the App Association recently released the fifth edition State of [...]
ACT | The App Association Celebrates World Intellectual Property Day
April 26 is World Intellectual Property Day, which gives us here at the App Association a chance to reflect on how all kinds of intellectual property rights (IP) – patents, trademarks, copyright, and trade secrets – are the lifeblood of our industry. The infringement on and theft of intellectual property presents a major threat to the success of App Association members and, in turn, the billions of consumers who rely on these software-based digital products and services. These intellectual property [...]
Ambiguity and Conflict in Access to Data: A Job for Congress
A simple flaw in federal law has led to a series of setbacks for both U.S. companies and law enforcement. Believe it or not, the law is not settled on whether or how U.S. law enforcement can access data stored overseas by a U.S. company. The answer depends on whom you ask and which federal circuit you’re in. The problem can be traced to ambiguity in a federal statute written in 1986, long before the internet became a commercial phenomenon. [...]