American Claiming to be “Satoshi Nakamoto” is Ruled as the Lawful Owner of 1.1M Bitcoin

Craig Wright, an American computer scientist who claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin, is the legal sole owner of 1.1M Bitcoin (more than $71 million), according to a U.S. federal court in Florida. Wright’s ownership of the Bitcoin was challenged by the family of his deceased business partner, David Kleiman, who alleged that Kleiman co-invented the Bitcoin and therefore ...

The EU Declared South Korea Adequate under the GDPR

According to a new adequacy-decision published by the European Commission, South Korea provides an adequate level of protection of personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), such that data that is subject to the GDPR can be safely transferred to South Korea.

The adequacy decision was based on the South Korean personal data protection law named PIPA, which ...

Federal Court Blocks Texas Law Seeking to Restrict Social Networks’ Right to Ban Users

A U.S. federal district court in Texas held that “social media platforms have a First Amendment right to moderate content disseminated on their platforms” and issued an order temporarily blocking the State of Texas from enforcing a state law that seeks to prohibit social platforms from banning users.

The state law was signed by the Governor of Texas in September ...

Israeli Gov’t Once Again Suspends COVID-19 Geolocation Surveillance

Only five days after issuing new emergency regulations re-authorizing the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) to track the cellphone location of individuals diagnosed with or exposed to the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the Israeli Government announced it is suspending the ISA’s surveillance.

According to a government press release, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Health, in consultation with Ministry of ...

Apple Delays Changes to its App Store Payments Policy

A U.S. Federal Court of Appeals granted Apple’s request to delay a legal order requiring it to change its App Store payment policy. The order, which should have taken effect on December 2nd, required Apple to relax its demand from app developers to only use Apple’s own payments system for in-app purchases, through which Apple charges a high ...

Millions of False and Invalid Copyright Claims Filed with YouTube in 2021

Millions of invalid or intentionally false copyright ownership claims were filed with YouTube in the first half of 2021, according to a first-of-its-kind copyright transparency report published by YouTube. These claims represent about 14 percent of more than 720 million copyright claims reported to YouTube from January to June 2021, most of them filed using YouTube’s “Content ID” system. The ...

Israeli Government Reauthorizes Israeli Security Agency Surveillance Owing to Covid-19 Omicron Variant

The Israeli Government issued new Emergency Regulations authorizing the Israeli Security Agency (ISA, commonly known by its Hebrew acronym “Shabak”) to track individuals diagnosed with the Omicron variant of Covid-19, and all those who came into contact with them for a period of up to seven days prior to their diagnosis. Tracking is done by monitoring their mobile phones’ signals. ...