On November 20, 2012, the FTC bureau approved the proposed settlement according to which Google Inc. has agreed to pay $22.5 million civil penalty settling charges that it misrepresented privacy assurances to users of Apple Inc.’s Safari Internet browser. The settlement resolves allegations that Google made misrepresentations to Safari users about the placement of advertising […]
Committee on Professional Ethics Topic: Maintaining confidentiality of client information as between independent lawyers sharing office space and computer Digest of the Committee: “Independent lawyers sharing office space may share computer for client-related information if they exercise reasonable care to assure that confidential information is not disclosed.” Rules: New York Rules of Professional Conduct 1.6(a) […]
28 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 1333 (2013) Abstract Regulators here and abroad have embraced “privacy by design” as a critical element of their ongoing revision of current privacy laws. The underlying idea is to “build in” privacy (in the form of Fair Information Practices or FIPs) when creating software products and services. But FIPs are […]
During its August 2012 Annual Meeting, the ABA House of Delegates approved the recommendations sponsored by the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20. The amendments substantially recognize the evolving use of technology in the advertisement and practice of law and the increasing mobility of lawyers. In particular, the amendments introduced the concept of reasonable efforts to […]
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) brought a complaint against Facebook, Inc for violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45 et seq. According to the FTC, Facebook has collected extensive “profile information” about its users violating the FTC Act on eight separate counts of unfair or deceptive acts. Specifically, the FTC found […]
Topic: Surreptitious Recording by Lawyers Syllabus of the Board: “A surreptitious, or secret, recording of a conversation by an Ohio lawyer is not a per se violation of Prof.Cond.R. 8.4(c) (conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation) if the recording does not violate the law of the jurisdiction in which the recording takes place. […]
Massachusetts Bar Association Ethics Opinion 12-03 [Approved by the Massachusetts Bar Association’s House of Delegates on May 17, 2012] Topics: Cloud Computing; Google docs Summary of the opinion: “A lawyer generally may store and synchronize electronic work files containing confidential client information across different platforms and devices using an Internet based storage solution, such as ‘Google […]
From the FTC report executive summary: “Based upon its analysis of the comments filed on the proposed privacy framework, as well as commercial and technological developments, the Commission is issuing this final Report. The final framework is intended to articulate best practices for companies that collect and use consumer data. These best practices can be […]
Notre Dame Law Review, Vol. 88, 2012 Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 265 Abstract from the article: “The tort of intrusion upon seclusion offers the best theory to target legitimate privacy harms in the information age. This Article introduces a new taxonomy that organizes privacy regulations across four key stages of information […]
31 Mississippi College L. Rev. 227 (2012) Abstract: “This article, which largely tracks my remarks at Mississippi College’s Social Media Symposium, examines expectations of privacy in social media such as weblogs (blogs), Facebook pages, and Twitter tweets. Social media is diverse and ever-diversifying, and while I address some of that complexity, I focus on the […]