Technology, Privacy and Data Security
Lev Berlin & Sousa represents many of the world's preeminent market
and survey research companies and trade groups as well as numerous sector-leading
software, Internet and information technology (IT) businesses.
Our clients continually purchase, sell, collect, and license data, software,
copyrights, patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property. As a
result, we have developed extensive experience counseling clients on technology
and privacy law matters. A representative sample of the different areas
of our technology and privacy law practices is described below.
Technology
We assist both sellers and purchasers of software, technology, and other
intellectual property with drafting and negotiating a wide range of agreements.
Examples of agreements that we help our clients with include but are not
limited to:
- License agreements
- Maintenance and support agreements
- Service level agreements (SLAs)
- Strategic alliances, value-added reseller (VARs) and dealer agreements
- Outsourcing and data processing agreements
- Hosting agreements
- Source code escrow agreements
- Website development agreements
- IT consulting services agreements
- Confidentiality and non-competition agreements
In addition, we regularly advise both start-up and established online commercial
ventures in a variety of contexts, such as informational, e-commerce,
and social networking websites. We draft legal terms and conditions, user
codes of conduct, and privacy policies and assist with general website
legal compliance, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, for example.
Our market research clients regularly ask us to assist with marketing,
promotional, and sweepstakes law compliance.
As part of our role as a legal and business adviser, we strive to support
the growth of our clients. We have a sophisticated securities practice
and have served as counsel in numerous merger and acquisition deals, venture
financings, and private placements for our clients in software, Internet,
and other technology-based industries.
Privacy
We field questions about the emerging and expanding web of state, federal,
and international privacy and data protection regulations on a daily basis.
Our clients ask us to advise them on a broad range of privacy and data
protection matters, including:
- Privacy policies and procedures
- Security breaches
- Information handling
- Regulatory investigations and inquiries
- Global compliance
- Cross-border data transfers and processing
- Commercial transactions
- Email and telemarketing regulation
- Legislative advocacy
We can also assist with employee training and compliance audits. Over the
course of counseling our clients, we have helped our clients comply with
every major U.S. privacy and data security law as well as numerous international
regulations.
Examples of issues we have assisted clients with include:
- CAN-SPAM
- Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Do Not Call Registry
- FCC's Fax Advertising Rule
- HIPAA, HITECH, and business associate agreements
- Gramm-Leech-Bliley
- Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
- European Union Data and e-Privacy Directives and the U.S. Department of
Commerce's Safe Harbor
- Canada's PIPEDA
- California's Online Privacy Statute, Massachusetts' Data Privacy
Standard, Connecticut's Social Security Number protection law, and
other, similar state data protection and data breach notification statutes
- FTC's behavioral advertising and tracking cookie guidelines and rules
Companies that maintain consumer and other personal information need to
be attentive to privacy and data protection issues and take steps to lessen
the risk of loss of the sensitive information in their possession. Serious
legal, public relations, and business problems confront companies that
do not correctly handle personal information.
Contact Lev Berlin & Sousa today to get started.