World Encryption Day Meets Cybersecurity Awareness Month: A Match Made for Inclusive Digital Safety
Our digital world continues to evolve at breakneck speed, making the importance of safeguarding our online information paramount. With the risk of privacy breaches increasing daily, researchers continue to find that the dangers of such compromises disproportionately burden disenfranchised communities, particularly Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), and LGBTQIA+ populations. October brings with it not only the vibrant hues of autumn but also the significance of two intertwined cybersecurity events: World Encryption Day and Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Why Encryption Matters [...]
A Lesson for Governments Around the World: Don’t Regulate First and Ask Questions Later
Recently, the European Commission quietly issued a “tender” seeking a study on the cybersecurity vulnerabilities the Digital Markets Act (DMA) might introduce. Reporters from Reuters appear to think its purpose is to “counter any Apple, Google antitrust pushback.” Whether or not this is an accurate characterization of the European Commission’s (EC’s) purpose with the tender, there are serious issues with this approach to governance. First, DMA’s vertical interoperability and open access mandates are, at least facially, mandates to introduce new [...]
Pioneering AI policy: How the EU’s AI Act could shape the app economy
The EU AI Act is a proposed regulation out of the European Union (EU) that seeks to regulate the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) through a risk-based approach. The European Commission (EC) proposed the first-of-its-kind draft legislation in 2021, but with the rest of the policy world turning its attention to AI and how to regulate it, the lawmakers in the EU are hoping to speed up the process to end trilogue negotiations and vote on the bill by the [...]
Sec. 230, Intellectual Property, and the App Store Tug-of-War
There’s a reason we don’t write much about Section 230. For those unfamiliar, Section 230 is the statutory provision clarifying that internet services hosting content created by third parties are not liable for a range of potential civil actions that could be directed at those third parties. The statute is intended to apply long-existing protections for physical forums to virtual forums. The idea is to prevent opportunistic litigation against forum operators that is more properly directed at the publishers of [...]
From Ideas to IPOs: Potential Changes for Startups in a New Merger Landscape
Startup entrepreneurs generally view acquisitions by larger firms as a quick route to success and seek them out. These acquisitions have propelled the U.S. economy and benefited consumers by merging groundbreaking products with the resources of established companies. While current U.S. government guidelines and filing requirements for mergers already pose challenges to small businesses, some recent changes have been proposed that, unless significantly improved, would create a whole host of problems for our small business members. Earlier this fall, members [...]
Issue Brief: Why App Developers Care about FTC v. Amazon
Overview. You might be wondering, hasn’t the FTC already sued Amazon a few times in the past couple years? Yes, but this latest case is the most anticipated because it seeks to punish Amazon for its size through antitrust—rather than consumer protection—claims. If you’ve read recent headlines, you might also get the misimpression that the FTC is arguing that Amazon is price-gouging consumers like some sellers did in the early stages of the pandemic. That’s also not really what the [...]