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A California law [1] that went into effect January 1, 2016 aims to protect the privacy of consumers who may be unaware of the extent to which the “internet of things” has invaded their living rooms or bedrooms. Assembly Bill 1116 targets smart televisions that have voice recognition features, and requires manufacturers of those TVs to […]

A California law [1] that went into effect January 1, 2016 aims to protect the privacy of consumers who may be unaware of the extent to which the “internet of things” has invaded their living rooms or bedrooms. Assembly Bill 1116 targets smart televisions that have voice recognition features, and requires manufacturers of those TVs to […]

Ethics Advisory Committee   Topic: attorneys participating in websites providing a fixed-fee legal referral service   From the Opinion The fixed-fee legal referral service works as follows: Attorney signs up for the service by agreeing to offer certain flat fee services. The fee for the service is set by the internet advertising directory website(service). The […]

In an Order dated October 15, 2015, a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the N.D. of California granted the motion of a putative class of plaintiffs requiring Facebook to produce information in response to interrogatories and a 30(b)(6) deposition notice. The plaintiffs allege that Facebook has violated the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California privacy […]

On September 22, 2015, the West Virginia Office of Disciplinary Counsel Legal Ethics issued a comprehensive opinion to provide the guidance for lawyers on the use of social media for both business and personal matters.  West Virginia Office of Disciplinary Counsel Legal Ethics Opinion 2015-02 Lawyer Disciplinary Board – L.E.O. 2015-02 The Disciplinary Board provided […]

The European Court of Justice has just issued its Judgment in Case C-230/14 Weltimmo s.r.o. v Nemzeti Adatvédelmi és Információszabadság Hatóság. The Court held that the data protection legislation of a Member State may be applied to a foreign company which exercises in that State, through stable arrangements, a real and effective activity. The facts: […]

France Article 32-II of the French Data Protection Act transposes into French law the obligation to obtain informed consent to store information of Article 5.3, Directive 2002/58/EC (above). On December 16, 2013, the CNIL, the French Data Protection Authority, released a set of practical FAQs (plus technical tools and relevant source code, in French) providing […]

Cookies are making headlines in Europe recently. In this blog we will have a closer look at the situation of France, Germany, Italy and the UK, focusing on information to users, users’ consent and consequences of violations. What is a cookie? “A cookie is a small piece of data that a website saves on your […]

On June 25, 2015, the advocate general of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“ECJ”) filed his opinion in the case 230/14, Weltimmo s.r.o. v Nemzeti Adatvédelmi és Információszabadság Hatóság (“Weltimmo”). According to the Advocate General, in order to determine which EU data protection law applies, authorities shall consider where the companies’ activity […]

On January 23, 2015, the Professional Ethics Committee of the Florida Bar issued Florida Proposed Advisory Opinion 14-1 providing guidelines for lawyers advising clients to “clean up” their social media pages not material to litigation. The Committee warns that “What constitutes an ‘unlawful’ obstruction, alteration, destruction, or concealment of evidence is a legal question, outside the scope […]