Is the Florida Bar Taking Facebook Friendship Too Seriously?
[Post by Venkat] The Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee issued an (advisory) opinion [link] which included the following question and answer: [May] a judge may add lawyers who may appear before the judge as “friends” on a social networking site,…
Ninth Circuit Rebuffs Another CAN-SPAM Plaintiff — Asis Internet Services v. Azoogle.com, Inc.
[Post by Venkat] The Ninth Circuit recently rejected [pdf] two appeals brought by CAN-SPAM plaintiff Asis Internet Services. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Azoogle and awarded costs. See Eric’s earlier blog post on that ruling. Asis…
Claims Brought by Express Scripts Data Breach Plaintiffs Rejected on Standing Grounds — Amburgy v. Express Scripts, Inc.
[Post by Venkat] A federal court in Missouri recently rejected a class action brought by consumer plaintiffs on standing grounds. Given the long line of consumer plaintiffs who have suffered a similar fate I thought this case was somewhat unexceptional,…
“Spam Filter Ate My Electronic Filing Notice” Plaintiffs Get Another Chance — Shuey v. Schwab
[Post by Venkat] The “spam filter ate my electronic filing notice” excuse was an inevitable byproduct of the CM/ECF electronic filing system now in place in federal courts. As expected, courts have not been very sympathetic to this excuse. In…
A Look at Twitter’s Updated Privacy Policy (November 19, 2009)
[Post by Venkat] As noted on Twitter’s blog, Twitter refreshed its privacy policy yesterday. Given that virtually everything Twitter does is placed under the microscope, I’m sure the policy will be pored over in detail. (Here’s a link to the…
Keylogger Software Company Not Liable for Eavesdropping by Ex-spouse — Hayes v. SpectorSoft
[Posted by Venkat] In what probably belongs in the “software doesn’t surreptitiously record conversations, people do” file, a federal court in Tennessee rejected Electronic Communications Privacy Act and product liability claims brought by someone whose ex-spouse used software to log…
Tagged Settles Spam and Address Book Harvesting Claims Brought by NY and TX Authorities
[Post by Venkat] Tagged, which is supposedly the “third-largest social networking site in the world” (whatever this means) recently settled enforcement actions brought by New York and Texas Attorneys General. (See coverage at Bits and Media Post.) The basic allegations…
Starbucks Data Breach Plaintiffs Try Their Luck in the 9th Circuit — Krottner v. Starbucks
[Post by Venkat] A lost laptop computer containing the personal information of Starbucks employees prompted a class action lawsuit against Starbucks (in Washington). The lawsuit received some coverage (see, for example Bob McMillan here, and Starbucks Gossip here), but the…
Court Sanctions Lawyer for Including Social Security Number and Date of Birth Information in Filing — Engeseth v. Isanti County
[Post by Venkat] I’ve blogged about parties who complain when opposing counsel wrongly includes personal information (usually social security numbers) in court filings. Attempts to assert counterclaims based on this type of conduct typically fail. For one example, see In…
Court: Prosecutors Can’t Rummage Around in a Defendant’s Gmail Account — U.S. v. Cioffi
[Post by Venkat] The government is prosecuting a couple of Bear Stearns hedge fund managers for securities fraud and related offenses. I came across a story that prosecutors obtained evidence from the gmail account of one of the defendants which…