Google has avoided legal action brought by ex-patient Andrew Prinsen on behalf of 1.6 million people over medical records shared between a British hospital trust and Google's DeepMind unit. In 2015, the Royal Free London NHS Trust transferred patient data to the tech firm in order to create a mobile app designed to identify acute kidney injuries. The Information Commissioner's Office said the data had been misused. Prinsen launched the case last year, alleging misuse of private information. The claim was dismissed last week.
Amy Cooper has been denied a lawsuit by the US appeals court system that would have seen her able to accuse former employer Franklin Templeton of illegally firing and defaming her. A three-judge panel within the Manhattan division of the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals said they were skeptical about Cooper's claims that the Franklin Templeton bosses had hidden facts regarding her behaviour that would have allowed her to keep her job. In the viral video from May 25, 2020, Cooper can be seen calling the police on a Black bird watcher and, during the call, pretending that "an African-American man" was "threatening my life."
The National Labor Relations Board's Los Angeles office has accused the University of Southern California (USC) of blocking student athletes from unionizing. In a complaint released on Thursday, the board said that USC, in collaboration with the National Collegiate Athletics Association, misclassified basketball and football players as student-athletes in order to deprive them of their protected labour activities. The board had found merit to the charges in December 2020, and will hold a hearing in November 2021. If the administrative judge rules against USC, this could set a major precedent for the college sports industry, which is currently worth billions of dollars annually.
Russian authorities have filed an administrative case against WhatsApp for failing to remove banned content, according to state-owned news agency RIA. The messaging app's parent company, Meta Platforms, was banned in the country last year. No details on the nature of the content WhatsApp allegedly failed to delete were given. Russian laws now permit the levying of fines on technology companies for censorship violations, with Google, Discord and Wikipedia among those affected. The maximum penalty WhatsApp faces is a fine of €46,379 ($51,500).
India is set to take action against Google over abuse of market position and anti-competitive practices, according to Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Federal Deputy Minister for Information Technology. Last year the Indian antitrust body fined Google $275m in two cases which involved abusing its dominant position in the Android operating system market, and pushing developers to use its in-app payment system. While the payments case is still under appeal, an Indian tribunal in March said in response to a legal challenge that the Competition Commission of India's findings of Google's anti-competitive conduct in the Android market were correct.
A US judge denied bail to Jack Douglas Teixeira, who is accused of violating the Espionage Act by leaking secret military documents about the Ukraine war and more. The Air National Guardsman was unable to convince Magistrate Judge David Hennessy that he should be released to house arrest ahead of his trial. Teixeira was the primary suspect behind the leaks, which led to the US government reviewing its national security procedures.
A police department intelligence unit leader in Washington, DC has been arrested and charged with leaking information to far-right extremist group the Proud Boys. Lieutenant Shane Lamond, who is accused of alerting the group to an arrest warrant and leaking confidential information about an investigation into a stolen "Black Lives Matter" banner, reportedly had regular contact with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio. Prosecutors presented communications and text exchanges between the two as evidence of their relationship. Lamond faces a maximum of 30 years' imprisonment if convicted of obstruction of justice and making false statements.
The European Commission has requested that rival tech firms of Microsoft provide details of customer data they are required to pass onto the firm as part of their contracts with Azure cloud. As we reported last November, Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), whose members include Amazon, lodged a complaint that Microsoft's new contractual terms imposed on 1 October last year, together with other practices, threatened to damage the cloud computing ecosystem in Europe.
The US Forest Service has reversed course on a previously stated timeframe for completing the approval on a land swap that would allow Rio Tinto to develop a copper mine in Arizona. The case pits a mining company seeking to supply a large portion of US copper demand against Indigenous groups who wish to preserve the Arizona Oak Flat campground, a site of religious importance. Although officials previously signalled that the environmental report necessary for the mine’s approval would be republished this spring, the department has yet to identify a timeframe for its completion.
An Illinois judge has dismissed a lawsuit that accused Mondelez International of deceiving consumers by removing real mint from its Trident Original Flavor chewing gum. US District Judge Iain Johnston said it was “fanciful” to believe consumers would expect the gum to contain mint or peppermint. The proposed class action by Kristen Lesorgen of Sycamore, Illinois, was like a separate case over claims against Walmart’s Great Value Fudge Mint Cookies, which had been dismissed for a similar reason.
The FBI has improperly searched a US database of foreign intelligence 278,000 times over several years including Americans accused of crimes, according to a court ruling. The searches happened during US crime investigations, including the Capitol riots of 6 January and the 2020 George Floyd protests, the court said. The intelligence database holds digital data and other information on individuals. Civil liberties campaigners said the finding emphasised the need to rein in the power granted to the FBI and other intelligence agencies to pursue intelligence investigations.
Nebraska lawmakers have passed a bill, which Republican Governor Jim Pillen is expected to sign into law, limiting abortion and restricting gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths. It bans abortions after 12 weeks of gestational age, allowing exceptions for medical emergencies when the mother's life is at risk, rape or incest. The bill also bans "gender-altering surgery" and restricts hormone therapy and puberty-blocking drugs for transgender people aged under 19. The state's legislature, dominated by Republicans, voted 33-15 to pass the bill.
An attorney for the family of the Marathon Petroleum refinery worker who died in a fire earlier this week has called the facility "dangerous" and claimed that safety at the Texas plant has not improved in a decade. The legal representative also confirmed that the family of 55-year-old Scott Higgins plan to file a gross negligence lawsuit against the company and the firms responsible for the plant's maintenance. Marathon Petroleum has said that an investigation into the incident which killed Higgins is ongoing, but has not released any information from its findings.
American Airlines pilots will receive a 21% pay rise this year, according to sources, following a new four-year tentative agreement between the company and the Allied Pilots Association. The association said on Thursday that it had agreed "in principle" on a contract. The deal still needs to be ratified by the union and could end the long-running feud between American Airlines and its pilots.
Argentina's largest oil union, the Private Oil and Gas Union of Rio Negro, Neuquen and La Pampa, has started an indefinite strike to demand labor improvements following a string of accidents that injured workers. The union, which represents around 25,000 workers operating in Argentina's Vaca Muerta shale formation, has said that previous discussions with business leaders have been meaningless and used simply to delay taking action. Vaca Muerta produces 47% of Argentine total oil output and 41% of gas.
TikTok has filed a federal lawsuit against Montana after the state passed a law banning the short-video app, citing the ban as unconstitutional. The company stated that it aims to protect its business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana.
Chinese citizens living in Florida have sued the state over a new law blocking citizens of China and several other countries from owning homes and land. The lawsuit stated that the state law, which comes into effect July 1, is unconstitutional and violates a federal law prohibiting discrimination in housing. The Florida legislation also prohibits most citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia and North Korea from owning property within 10 miles of any military installation or "critical infrastructure facility" such as a power plant, airport or refinery.
