Earlier this week, a New York state appeals court ruled that Facebook had no legal standing to challenge search warrants on behalf of its
customers. The court stated that only the defendant may challenge the search warrant and not Facebook.
The court's unanimous opinion stated that, “[f]here is no constitutional or statutory right to challenge an allegedly defective warrant before it is executed.” This ruling was not surprising because the law usually takes years to catch up to the technology. Will other courts around the country follow this ruling?
As more of these types of cases (and similar ones) pop up, it will be interesting to see how the law addresses new technologies. There is no one size fits all in determining public policy and I hope there is a robust conversation on these important issues.
Copyright 2015 by The Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label Social Media Law and Privacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Media Law and Privacy. Show all posts
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
comScore Agrees To $14 Million Settlement For Privacy Violations
According to its website, comScore is,"a leading Internet technology company that measures what people do as they navigate the digital world-and turns that information into insights and actions for our clients to maximize the value of their digital investments." Interestingly, according to a lawsuit comScore has recently settled it may have also put profits ahead of its users' personal privacy.
MediaPost has reported that comScore has agreed to settle a lawsuit that it violated its users' privacy for $14 million dollars. In 2011, several plaintiffs filed a class-action privacy lawsuit alleging they unknowingly installed comScore's software after downloading a free product and that the company was then able to collect data that included usernames, passwords, search queries, credit card numbers, retail transactions, etc...
Companies that put profits ahead of privacy not only risk the safety and security of their users, they may also be slapped with lawsuits and/or regulatory investigations that may lead to multi-million dollar settlements, fines, legal fees, and other expenses. The bottom line is that some members of the digital ecosystem must learn that it pays to protect their users' privacy.
Copyright 2014 by Shear Law, LLC. All rights reserved.
MediaPost has reported that comScore has agreed to settle a lawsuit that it violated its users' privacy for $14 million dollars. In 2011, several plaintiffs filed a class-action privacy lawsuit alleging they unknowingly installed comScore's software after downloading a free product and that the company was then able to collect data that included usernames, passwords, search queries, credit card numbers, retail transactions, etc...
Companies that put profits ahead of privacy not only risk the safety and security of their users, they may also be slapped with lawsuits and/or regulatory investigations that may lead to multi-million dollar settlements, fines, legal fees, and other expenses. The bottom line is that some members of the digital ecosystem must learn that it pays to protect their users' privacy.
Copyright 2014 by Shear Law, LLC. All rights reserved.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Kentucky Takes the Lead To Protect Student Privacy in the Digital Age
According to WHAS11.com in Kentucky, HB 232 was signed into law today by Governor Steve Beshear. This new law states "[a] cloud computing service provider shall not in any case process student data to advertise or facilitate advertising or to create or correct an individual or household profile for any advertisement purpose, and shall not sell, disclose, or otherwise process student data for any commercial purpose." In a nutshell, the new law bans school vendors who provide cloud based services from data mining student digital communications for advertising purposes.
HB 232 received bipartisan support and passed 98-0 in the Kentucky House and 38-0 in the Kentucky Senate. The bill appears to be have been inspired by the Target 2013 holiday data breach and the Gmail data mining lawsuit where Google recently admitted in court documents that its Google Apps For Education platform that it offers for "free" to schools data mines student digital activity for corporate profit.
Kentucky has taken a significant step to protect its students in the Digital Age. This new law demonstrates that in Kentucky children's privacy and safety do not take a back seat to the special interests that believe they have the right to data mine our students' digital activity for commercial gain. Other states such as Oklahoma and New York have enacted or introduced student privacy legislation in the past year; however, Kentucky's new law appears to be the first that offers much greater privacy protection than the Family Educational and Privacy Rights Act (FERPA).
My hope is that other states and eventually Congress follows Kentucky's lead to enact legislation that ensures our children's privacy is better protected in the Digital Age.
Copyright 2014 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
HB 232 received bipartisan support and passed 98-0 in the Kentucky House and 38-0 in the Kentucky Senate. The bill appears to be have been inspired by the Target 2013 holiday data breach and the Gmail data mining lawsuit where Google recently admitted in court documents that its Google Apps For Education platform that it offers for "free" to schools data mines student digital activity for corporate profit.
Kentucky has taken a significant step to protect its students in the Digital Age. This new law demonstrates that in Kentucky children's privacy and safety do not take a back seat to the special interests that believe they have the right to data mine our students' digital activity for commercial gain. Other states such as Oklahoma and New York have enacted or introduced student privacy legislation in the past year; however, Kentucky's new law appears to be the first that offers much greater privacy protection than the Family Educational and Privacy Rights Act (FERPA).
My hope is that other states and eventually Congress follows Kentucky's lead to enact legislation that ensures our children's privacy is better protected in the Digital Age.
Copyright 2014 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Top Secret PRISM Program Enables U.S. Government to Access the Personal Digital Content of Internet Users
According to The Washington Post, the "National Security Agency (NSA) and the FBI are tapping directly into the
central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting
audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection
logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets." These new revelations came on the heels of a report late last night that the federal government is secretly collecting vast amounts of data from Verizon phone records.
The documents that the Washington Post has received allege that “[c]ollection (occurs) directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.” The court approved program is called PRISM.
The NSA and FBI were created to protect our country. I became homeless for a period of time because of the terrorist attacks in New York City on 9/11/2001. I will never forget the American heroism I witnessed from New York's Bravest and Finest that day.
I believe that our government should have the offensive capability to protect our citizens from future terrorist attacks. The alleged breadth and depth of our surveillance capabilities does not surprise me. It is possible that without these programs a dirty bomb may have already been detonated in the middle of a large American city and/or a similar large scale 9/11 style attack may have occurred.
As a society we need to determine how to properly balance the safety of our country with the personal privacy of our citizens because the decisions we make today will determine our future. Are the proper checks and balances in place to ensure that the government does not abuse its power? This question needs to be answered sooner rather than later.
I want future generations to experience life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness without losing their personal privacy.
Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
The documents that the Washington Post has received allege that “[c]ollection (occurs) directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.” The court approved program is called PRISM.
The NSA and FBI were created to protect our country. I became homeless for a period of time because of the terrorist attacks in New York City on 9/11/2001. I will never forget the American heroism I witnessed from New York's Bravest and Finest that day.
I believe that our government should have the offensive capability to protect our citizens from future terrorist attacks. The alleged breadth and depth of our surveillance capabilities does not surprise me. It is possible that without these programs a dirty bomb may have already been detonated in the middle of a large American city and/or a similar large scale 9/11 style attack may have occurred.
As a society we need to determine how to properly balance the safety of our country with the personal privacy of our citizens because the decisions we make today will determine our future. Are the proper checks and balances in place to ensure that the government does not abuse its power? This question needs to be answered sooner rather than later.
I want future generations to experience life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness without losing their personal privacy.
Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
FTC Complaint Filed Against Snapchat
Consumer privacy advocate EPIC has recently filed an FTC complaint against Snapchat because it believes the service is misleading consumers regarding its ability to delete the content being sent across its platform. According to multiple published reports, Snapchat may not be permanently deleting the content being sent through its service despite its claims.
Snapchat's promise that content would "self-destruct" after it is viewed may remind some people of Mission Impossible's self-destruct messaging system. Self destruct messages are ideal for some content that is sent online. Due to the constant barrage of media coverage regarding sexting scandals, an app that actually deletes content once it is viewed may be very profitable for a company.
Unless Snapchat is able to quickly fix its alleged inability to permanently delete the content it claims it is able to delete it may have significant legal liability. It may only be a matter of time before a user is damaged because content it thought was deleted was not.
To learn more about these issues you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
Snapchat's promise that content would "self-destruct" after it is viewed may remind some people of Mission Impossible's self-destruct messaging system. Self destruct messages are ideal for some content that is sent online. Due to the constant barrage of media coverage regarding sexting scandals, an app that actually deletes content once it is viewed may be very profitable for a company.
Unless Snapchat is able to quickly fix its alleged inability to permanently delete the content it claims it is able to delete it may have significant legal liability. It may only be a matter of time before a user is damaged because content it thought was deleted was not.
To learn more about these issues you may contact me at www.shearlaw.com.
Copyright 2013 by the Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC. All rights reserved.
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