Consumers who sued Amazon must now arbitrate claims that the company’s Alexa device, a digital assistant, illegally recorded their voices and stored their voiceprints in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). In its Feb. 5opinion, the court ruled on the parties’ dueling motions. It denied the plaintiffs’ request for remand to state court after agreeing with Amazon that the plaintiffs had Article III standing. As to two of the three named plaintiffs, the court granted Amazon’s motion to compel arbitration.
Read moreSingapore’s mandatory breach notification regime is now in force
From 1 February 2021, most of the recent amendments to the Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2020 (No. 40 of 2020) are now in force. The amendments update Singapore's regulatory framework and seek to balance economic needs with the protection of consumers' data rights.
The amendments have four primary aims:
Strengthening consumer trust through organisational accountability;
Ensuring the effectiveness of enforcement;
Enhancing consumer autonomy; and
Supporting data use for innovation.
Some key sections, including those covering data portability and the increase in the amounts of fines, are not yet in force but we expect that they will be implemented this year.
Read moreZynga granted limited discovery on player accounts in data breach cases
A federal judge has ordered Zynga Inc app users to give the company’s lawyers information associated with their accounts to help determine whether the users’ data breach claims belong in arbitration.
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