By: Hunter Becker Swiss bank company UBS has agreed to buy U.S digital automated wealth management provider Wealthfront, which has more than $27 billion in assets under its management. The acquisition will be an all-cash deal worth $1.4 billion with Wealthfront, which has more than 470,000 clients in the United States and caters to well-off… Read More Rise of the Machines: Robo-Advisors Under the Spotlight
By: Bridget Harrington Late October 2021 was rife with discussion of climate change; everyone from world leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference, to religious leaders like Pope Francis, and activists such as Greta Thunberg have all spoken about the need for sweeping changes to climate policy. To many, it seems evident that extreme weather… Read More Troubled Waters: Local Government Use of Extreme Weather Detection Systems Presents Questions of the Technology’s Efficacy & Equity
By: Brenna Ryder A California federal judge granted preliminary approval to Zoom Video Communications, Inc., (“Zoom”), users’ $85 million deal resolving privacy and data security claims against the video conferencing provider. U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh (“Koh”), granted this initial approval, ruling that “the terms of the settlement agreement do not improperly grant preferential… Read More Title: Zoom Boom!: Zoom Reaches Settlement Over Zoombombing Suits
By: Bradley Bostwick “It’s both terrifying and potentially really inspiring.” These are the words used by Professor Andrew Przybylski to describe Facebook’s shift towards a metaverse-based company. To help understand Facebook’s expansion, the metaverse is what will come after the internet and will be a virtual space where humans can operate and interact with each… Read More Escaping to the…‘Metaverse’?: Facebook Looks to Overshadow Their Poor Consumer Protection With A Company Rebrand
By: John Gillies Even before his removal from Twitter two days after the storming of the Capital on January 6, 2021, former President Donald Trump (“Trump”), has talked about creating his own social media platform to address censorship by the Big Tech companies. That process has now begun and is much more than just a… Read More A Mastodon-Sized Problem: Trump’s Truth Social Neglects To Credit Source Code
By: Joseph Cunningham After a “Cosby Suite,” several governmental investigations and lawsuits, employee walkouts, and lost sponsors, it seems Activision Blizzard, and the video game industry as a whole, are in for a massive change. Activision Blizzard is a massive videogame developer known for games like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch. Recently,… Read More Blizzard in Hot Water
By: Jack Taylor Rolling green hills, Guinness beer, and American tech companies? Even though the latter may not be as intuitively obvious, all three of these are extremely abundant in the country of Ireland. For decades massive American technology companies have selected Ireland as the location of their European headquarters. This is due to the… Read More The End of the Irish Silicon Valley? How Ireland’s New Minimum Corporate Tax Rate Could Push American Tech Companies Away
By: Christopher Kinney Not long after winning back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards and a league championship, NBA Superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo (“Giannis”), has his sights on a different type of victory: winning in the courtroom. Giannis has come to be known around the league as the “Greek Freak” largely in part due to his Greek heritage… Read More A Force On The Basketball Court And In The Courtroom: A Deeper Look Into Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Recent String Of Intellectual Property Disputes
By: Alexa Sullivan After much deliberation, the U.S. Department of Commerce has announced a new rule aimed at preventing the export or sale of hacking technologies and devices–specifically to countries of concern–such as China and Russia. In the digital era, technology has become a valuable weapon mobilized by other countries and foreign organizations to threaten national… Read More I Spy: Analyzing the new rule passed by the US Department of Commerce restricting the exportation of surveillance spyware
By: Hunter Becker Slack Technologies Inc. (“Slack”), a company acquired by Salesforce and valued at over $25 billion in 2020, is now facing a lawsuit that could find it liable for the statements made in its direct listing. A company can go public a few ways, namely by traditional IPO, direct listing, or reverse merger.… Read More No Slack for Slack
By: Jennifer Pepin Amazon’s Audible book reading services (“Audible”), and phone apps for reading the holy books of Islam and Christianity have disappeared from the Apple store in mainland China. Audible reported that it removed its app from the Apple store because of “permit restrictions.” Apps for listening and reading the Quran and Bible, which… Read More Religious Persecution in China: Removing Audible and ‘Holy Book’ apps from Apple Store
By: Claire Remillard Everyone understands the sinking feeling of flashing lights in your rearview mirror or coming back to your car to find a little piece of paper rustling on the windshield: UGH, you got a ticket. Now you have a choice: will you show up in court to fight the ticket, or will you… Read More Limiting Access to Legal Services: Are You Ticked About The Ruling Against TIKD?
By: Eric Mulvey On October 7, 2021, eighteen former National Basketball Association (“NBA”) players were charged for allegedly defrauding the NBA’s health insurance plan out of approximately $4 million. All nineteen defendants involved with the scheme were charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, while Terrence Williams (“Williams”), is facing an… Read More Health Care For All?: 18 Ex-NBA Players Indicted For Fraud
By: Kathryn Barber Reality television fans who question whether the drama they see on the screen is actually real or not can now be assured that The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills franchise has at least some truth behind it. The show stars several rich and glamorous “housewives” who engage in trivial drama such as… Read More The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Just Got More Real: Lawyer Seeks Unedited Footage of Erika Jayne Amid Embezzlement Scandal
By: Sarish Siddiqui Earlier this summer, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), banned the use of “stalkerware” applications. Stalkerware apps are often used to track a user’s movements or online activities without their consent or knowledge. These applications are marketed as a method to catch a cheating significant other, to monitor elderly adults with Alzheimer’s or… Read More BEWARE: Stalkerware Recognizes Your Every Keystroke
By: Emily Balzano Since its establishment, the European Union (“EU”), has attempted to harmonize its vertical supply chain processes through various regulations. With the current regulations set to expire in early 2022, new proposals have been drafted which seem to narrow the safeguards more than the current guidelines. Currently, Article 101(1) of the Treaty in… Read More Out With the Old in With (N)EU: EU’s New Vertical Supply Chain Regulations
By: Megan Fistori In September of 2021, the Wall Street Journal conducted its own in-depth research regarding the significant mental health issues that Instagram creates for teenagers. The Wall Street Journal published a series of articles based on internal research and communications leaked by a company whistleblower from Facebook. One article called out Facebook for… Read More Potential Solutions – Lawmakers Are Responding to the “Facebook Files”
By: Tianyue Liao Video-sharing platforms (“VSPs”), could now face a fine of up to £250,000 or 5% of turnover, and Ofcom now has the power to force non-compliant companies to shut down their UK operations permanently. The VSPs that are currently under regulation are those whose European operations are primarily based in the UK–which includes TikTok,… Read More TikTok might stop ticking: Ofcom’s new regulation seeks to protect users from harmful online content while aiming to pin down video-sharing platforms.
By: Brooke Gary Many students in high school or college between the years of 2014–2016 likely remember the anonymous social media platform, Yik Yak. While some students may recall Yik Yak as an app that allowed them to engage with other students on campus or freely voice their opinions, most students likely remember Yik Yak… Read More “The Yak is Back”: The Return of the Anonymous Social Media App and its Challenge to First Amendment Free Speech on College Campuses
By: Jeffrey Almonte Bought a new item? More likely than not you have to register a new account to fully utilize it. Requiring you to set up a unique username, a password with one or two special characters and at least one number, agree to a binding arbitration across the country, create security question answers… Read More Faster Dispute Resolution: How AI Could Impact The Future of Arbitration