Case Law & Court Rules

Facebook has appealed a September 17, 2013 New York County trial court sealed order containing bulk search warrants directing Facebook to produce virtually all records and communications of 381 Facebook accounts. The warrants also included provisions barring Facebook from informing users of the warrants. Facebook unsuccessfully moved to quash the bulk warrants as overly broad […]

Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, warned ECJ’s ” ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling risks empowering repressive governments and their control of the internet”. More information at http://www.theguardian… Follow us on& Like us on    

The Supreme Court of Canada said anonymity is vital to personal privacy in the digital era. The Court held inter alia that a judge’s permission is needed before asking Internet providers for basic information that would identify their customers. The case deals with a suspected child pornographer in a 2007 Saskatchewan investigation. More information at […]

According to the decision: “47 U.S.C.S. § 230 generally immunizes internet service providers from liability for third-party content wherever such liability depends on characterizing the provider as a “publisher or speaker” of objectionable material”. Plaintiff realtor sued defendants, a competitor, the competitor’s principal, and the principal’s assistant, for defamation and unfair competition by disparagement. The […]

From the document: “In its ruling of 13 May 20141 the EU Court said: a)      On the Territoriality of EU rules: Even if the physical server of a company processing data is located outside Europe, EU rules apply to search engine operators if they have a branch or a subsidiary in a Member State which […]

On April 29, 2014, during the oral argument of Riley v. California (case in which the Supreme Court was reviewing the constitutionality of warrantless cell phone searches by law enforcement officers during an arrest), the issue of social media privacy settings was briefly (and wrongly) discussed. Justice Roberts is reported to have said that there […]

On May 13, 2014, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the Google Spain SL, Google Inc. v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) — Case C 131-12, issued a preliminary ruling (i.e. an interpretation decision) on referral of the Spanish Audiencia Nacional (National High Court). The ECJ found that a search engine’s retrieval […]

On April 8, 2014 the European Court of Justice declared invalid Directive 2006/24/EC (“Data Retention Directive”) on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications or public communications networks. The directive establishes that providers must retain traffic and location data as well as related data necessary […]

On April 25, 2014 James Francis, Magistrate Judge of the Southern District of New York, held that all U.S.-based Internet, email, and on-line storage providers can be forced to hand over overseas data, if so requested by a U.S. government search warrant. The case itself addressed a search warrant issued to Microsoft for a customer’s […]

Topic: Independency of National Data Protection Authorities   Relevant Law: EU Directive 95/46/EC Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 The full text of the judgments is available at: http://curia.europa… Open Pdf