Litigation Partner, Ira Steinberg, was quoted in a Law.com article that discussed the challenges of older wiretapping laws with modern internet privacy concerns.

Excerpts:

Ira Steinberg, a partner in Greenberg Glusker’s litigation group, said that the way older wiretapping laws mesh with modern internet privacy issues is among the most interesting elements of the recent rounds of litigation.

“There is a square-peg-in-a-round-hole issue, where it is not clear how the statutes apply since they often predate the internet by decades,” Steinberg said.

Steinberg said that companies should be taking a close look with respect to wiretapping, disclosure and dispute resolution.

“With respect to wiretapping, it is really important to make sure your contractors are not authorized to exploit data for their own profit without your consent,” Steinberg said. On this front, Steinberg said that the law is really starting to draw a line based on how the third party uses the data.

As for disclosure, Steinberg said that it can be a defense to a lot of privacy claims. Making sure that companies are getting a click-through full-disclosure consent before anything is collected is the perfect case. And third, Steinberg said that dispute resolution and knowing where a consumer is going to bring their claims will give the company a reasonable chance to meaningfully litigate them or resolve them early.

Resources

• Law.com (Subscription Required)