On August 7, 2024, the 6th Circuit upheld a Chinese spy’s twenty-year prison sentence for attempting to steal aviation trade secrets from General Electric (GE). Yanjun Xu, a deputy director in China’s Ministry of State Security, was responsible for trying to steal aviation-related proprietary information. He spent years inviting Western aviation experts to China, attempting […]
Data Protection
Senate Passes Bill for Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act
On July 30, 2024, in a 91-3 vote, the U.S. Senate passed the bill for the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (the “Bill”). The Bill, which combines the bills for the Kids Online Safety Act (“KOSA”) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (“CTOPPA”), aims to expand online safety and privacy protections […]
DOJ Announces $11.3 Million in Settlements for FCA Violations
On Monday, June 17, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a settlement in which two U.S. based consulting companies agreed to pay a combined total of $11.3 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by failing to comply with cybersecurity requirements in government contracts. According to the DOJ, the […]
Article: White Paper on Clarifying Definitions in the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024
Peter Swire, Senior Counsel at Alston & Bird, has published a white paper at the Cross-Border Data Forum (“CBDF”), analyzing the definitions in the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 (“PADFAA”), which was passed on April 24, 2024 and will take effect on June 23, 2024. The white paper discusses some ambiguities […]
FTC Denies an Application to Add a New Verifiable Parental Consent Mechanism Under COPPA Rule Without Prejudice
On March 29, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) published a unanimous decision to deny an application by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, Yoti, and SuperAwesome (collectively, the “Applicants”) to add a new verifiable parental consent (“VPC”) mechanism under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (“COPPA Rule”). The application, which our previous blog post […]