Your Emoji Use Just Formed a Contract
Or, did it? As confirmed in a very recent Wall Street Journal article, the legal impacts and effects of using emojis and emoticons in business and workplace communications and dealings are growing. For attorneys, contract professionals, and business executives and teams discussing, negotiating, and communicating about technology, business, deals, and transactions, the use of emojis (pictographs) and emoticons (punctuation marks, letters, and numbers) should be a concern. Depending on the circumstances, using an emoji or emoticon to respond to another party’s email or message may have the same effect as if precisely crafted words had been used. Unless the author
RETURN TO SENDER: Aetna to Pay $17M to Settle Claims Related to Vendor Mailer Data Breach
Aetna has agreed to pay $17.2 million and to implement a “best practices” policy regarding sensitive policyholder data, in order to settle class action litigation brought against it arising from a mass mailing sent by one of its mailing vendors. As discussed in a blog post last year, federal class action litigation was brought against Aetna and its mailing vendor in 2017 based on the vendor’s use of glassine envelopes to communicate HIV medication information to Aetna insureds. The envelopes revealed that the named addressee was contacted about options for filling HIV medication prescriptions. The litigation alleged violations by Aetna
What Does Ransomware Cost Companies?
In its 10-Q filing for the quarter ended September 30, 2017, Merck & Co., Inc. stated the following: On June 27, 2017, the Company experienced a network cyber-attack that led to a disruption of its worldwide operations, including manufacturing, research and sales operations. … [T]he Company was unable to fulfill orders for certain other products in certain markets, which had an unfavorable effect on sales for the third quarter and first nine months of 2017 of approximately $135 million. … In addition, the Company recorded manufacturing-related expenses, … as well as expenses related to remediation efforts … , which aggregated
Lessons Learned: Vendor Sued in Class Action Suit for Security Misses
The recently alleged data privacy and security incident involving Aetna and one of its vendors is now the basis of class action litigation. Both the vendor and Aetna are named defendants in the class action suit, which raises potentially novel issues for companies and their third-party service providers to consider when contracting for technology and non-technology services that touch data security and privacy matters.
Anti Anti-Virus
While there is no surefire method of identifying a software or hardware vendor intent on stealing information, taking some simple steps can help mitigate damages by notifying companies of any known or suspected issues.
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Recent Post
- Association of Technology Law Professionals – Materials Accompanying February 11, 2022, Meeting February 15, 2022
- Association of Technology Law Professionals – June 2021 Newsletter June 3, 2021
- Contracting Conundrum: “Reasonable Security Measures” April 16, 2021
- Association of Technology Law Professionals – March 2021 Newsletter March 1, 2021
