“You are the product.”
That was how attorney Michael Canty summed up a central lesson of the modern internet when he visited Duke Law School’s Cyber Law class earlier this semester. Canty, a partner at Labaton Keller Sucharow, joined colleague Danielle Mazzeo (formerly Izzo) to give students a rare inside look at the landmark 2025 privacy case Frasco v. Flo Health, which found Meta liable for secretly collecting and monetizing sensitive health data from the popular reproductive health app Flo Health.
The course, co-taught by David Hoffman and Shane Stansbury, is offered jointly by Duke Law and the Sanford School of Public Policy. It explores the legal and ethical dimensions of cybersecurity and digital privacy. Hoffman, who also served as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the case, said the visit was designed to show students “how privacy law moves from theory to practice.”
Canty and Mazzeo’s firm represented a nationwide class of women who used the Flo Health app to track their menstrual cycles, fertility, and pregnancies. Their lawsuit revealed that the app had been sharing highly personal data with companies including Meta and Google, without users’ knowledge or consent. When the case went to trial in California, the jury found Meta had violated the state’s wiretapping law, awarding potential damages of up to $8 billion.
“The cornerstone of all these cases is consent,” Canty told the class. “Big Tech has taken this data and not asked for sufficient consent from the consumer. I’m not against technology—I use it every day—but if companies want to collect this information, they need to ask first.”
Canty shared the story of how his team built the case, from early investigations to trial strategy. He described how Mazzeo led discovery, combing through reams of technical code and internal communications to prove that Meta’s software development tools were quietly recording user data. “We had to prove what was happening under the hood,” Mazzeo explained, describing how the team worked with experts to translate complex software code into plain language evidence that a jury could understand.
For the law and policy students, the discussion was part legal masterclass, part ethics seminar. Canty’s storytelling drew on his own path through the justice system, from prosecuting homicides and terrorism cases as an Assistant U.S. Attorney to litigating major privacy class actions. He urged students to think about the human stories behind every case.
“These weren’t abstract privacy violations,” he said. “One of our clients was a 15-year-old girl who used Flo Health to track her cycle. Another was a mother trying to get pregnant. When they testified, they said they believed this information would stay private. That’s what this case was really about—trust.”
Canty also reflected on what he sees as a professional turning point for lawyers working in technology and privacy. He criticized what he described as “a troubling culture of obstruction” in corporate legal practices, where large companies delay or withhold documents during discovery. “It’s become acceptable in some circles to flout the rules of discovery and just wait until you’re forced to comply,” he said. “But that’s not advocacy—that’s a lack of ethics. You can be an ethical, honorable lawyer and also be the best in the business.”
For Hoffman and Stansbury, the class session offered students a window into how data privacy law is evolving in real time—and how litigation can shape industry behavior as much as legislation can.
“This is what it looks like when the principles we discuss in class come alive in a courtroom,” Hoffman said. “The students got to see how evidence, ethics, and advocacy intersect in a case that will influence how companies handle personal data for years to come.”
By the end of the session, Canty left the class with a simple challenge: bet on yourself, take risks, and lead with integrity. “You have to decide early on whether you want a job in the law or a career in the law,” he told the students. “If you want a career, find what you’re passionate about and demand excellence of yourself every day.”