Category Archives: Internet

Who Has Your Back – Digitally Speaking?

04 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by in 1986 Electronic Communications Act, Computer Forensics, Cybersecurity, Intellectual Property, Internet, Legal Technology, Public Domain

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Report – Who Has Your Digital Back? by Sabrina I. Pacifici, BeSpacific Blog

http://www.bespacific.com/report-who-has-your-back/

Technology is changing literally all the time. Unfortunately, the law does not. Congress has yet to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act. For example, there is no law that emails stored longer than 6 months has the same protection emails stored less than 6 months.

To date, there are no NSA reforms for surveillance of online communication. It is possible that Congress will go farther and mandate “back doors” to allow government to access more digital information. Reports of hackers accessing our financial and private information are no longer surprising. Although companies assure us that our information is secure, is it?

These matters go the heart of digital privacy issues for companies and individuals and FOIA requests. Some of you will be surprised how vulnerable we are. -CCE

European Countries Fed Up With Google’s Privacy Policy.

15 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by in European Union, France, Germany, Intellectual Property, International Law, Internet, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom

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Dutch Authority To Google: Change Privacy Policy Or Else, by Lock Essers, PCWorld

http://tinyurl.com/n6h5b7y

If Google doesn’t change how it handles users’ private data by the end of February, it may face fines of €15 million (about US$18.6 million), the Dutch Privacy Authority said Monday.

Google’s current privacy policy breaches several provisions of the Dutch data protection act, the regulator found in an investigation in 2013. In particular, the probe showed that Google breaches the law when it combines data from different services like search queries, location data and videos watched.

‘Google catches us in an invisible web of our personal data without telling us and without asking us for our consent. This has been ongoing since 2012 and we hope our patience will no longer be tested,’ said Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the Dutch DPA.

By the end of February, Google should get ‘unambiguous consent’ from its users before it combines personal data from different Google services to serve targeted ads, the DPA said. This could for instance be achieved by introducing a separate consent window.

Moreover, Google should also give clear and consistent information in its privacy policy to people who use several Google services. . . .

Forget Me – Europe Rules On Removing Google Links.

17 Saturday May 2014

Posted by in Copyright, Google, Intellectual Property, Internet, Legal Technology, Privacy, Public Domain

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European Ruling On Removing Google Links May Leave A Mess, by Aarti Shanani, All Tech Considered, NPR

http://tinyurl.com/k747wvt

Google’s lawyers are trying to make sense of a ruling they did not expect.

This week, Europe’s highest court decided that people have a right to have search results about them deleted from online databases. So Google has to remove links to certain pages. Legal experts in Europe are torn about what, exactly, that means.

What Prompted The Ruling

There’s a man in Spain who doesn’t like his search results. I ask a fellow Spaniard, Cristina de la Serna in Madrid, to show us why.

She goes to Google.es, Spain’s version of the search engine, and types in the name Mario Costeja Gonzalez. The second result she gets for Gonzalez is a link to a 1998 Spanish newspaper clip. It shows his home was repossessed because of debt.

Google Must Delete Personal Data When Asked, European Court Says

Gonzalez wants the old blemish to go away, and de la Serna thinks he’s got a point. Searching people isn’t the same as searching for shoes, cars or books. . . .

D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Rules That FCC Regulations Are Outside the Agency’s Authority.

14 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by in Appellate Law, District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, FCC, Government, Internet

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Not Hyperbole: The Internet Won’t Be The Same Without Net Neutrality, by Brian Focht, The Cyber Advocate

http://tinyurl.com/lwlyubo

Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that key provisions of regulations promulgated by the FCC, referred to as the ‘Open Internet Rules’ (or ‘Net Neutrality’ to most), were outside the agency’s authority. Specifically, the court held that rules requiring broadband internet service providers to treat all internet traffic equally were beyond the FCC’s powers, because broadband providers are not considered ‘common carriers.’