4th Cir.: No Expectation of Privacy in Internet and Phone Subscriber Info — U.S. v. Bynum
[Post by Venkat] United States v. Bynum, Case No. 08-4207 (4th Cir.) (May 5, 2010) The FBI observed Marques Bynum’s activities in a Yahoo! chat room. Bynum had uploaded photos of children engaged in sex acts. The FBI served an…
Internet Access Provider & Blocklist Publishers Denied 230(c)(2) Immunity for Anti-Spam Efforts
By Eric Goldman Smith v. Trusted Universal Standards in Electronic Transactions, Inc., 2010 WL 1799456 (D.N.J. May 4, 2010) It’s usually a drag to read opinions in pro se lawsuits. Most of the time, the litigant gets flattened mercilessly. Occasionally,…
Online Publishers, Advertising and Privacy Considerations
By Eric Goldman I recently spoke at OMMA Global on a panel entitled “Can Publishers Take Ownership of Privacy?” This panel focused on the role of online publishers in the marketing-and-privacy discussions. Most of the privacy angst has focused on…
Yahoo! Chat Logs Admitted Over Defendant’s Objections Based on Eavesdropping Statute — People v. Nakai
[Post by Venkat] State v. Singh Nakai, 2010 Cal. App. LEXIS 446 (Cal. App.) (Div. 2) (April 2, 2010) Division two of the California Court of Appeals recently rejected a defendant’s argument that California’s eavesdropping statute precluded the admission of…
Unmasked Judge/Commenter Sues Newspaper for $50mm — Saffold v. Plain Dealer
[Post by Venkat] Saffold v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co., Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas (filed April 7, 2010) [scribd] A judge/commenter who was unmasked by the Cleveland Plain Dealer is reportedly suing the newspaper for 50 million dollars. (h/t…
Facebook Privacy Class Action Filed by Lanier Firm Voluntarily Dismissed — Melkonian v. Facebook
[Post by Venkat] Melkonian v. Facebook, Orange County Superior Court Case No. 30-2009-00293755-CU-BT-CJC [complaint] In August of last year, prominent plaintiffs’ lawyer Mark Lanier filed a privacy lawsuit against Facebook on behalf of a group of plaintiffs. [WSJ Law blog]…
March 2010 Quick Links
By Eric Goldman Internet Exceptionalism * Stern v. Sony Corp., CV 09-7710 PA (C.D. Cal. Feb. 8 2010) “to the extent Plaintiff is suing Sony as a manufacturer of video games, and the provider of online services, Sony is not…
Beacon Class Action Settlement Approved — Lane v. Facebook
[Post by Venkat] Lane v. Facebook (Case No. 09-3845 RS; March 17, 2010) [scribd link] Judge Seeborg yesterday issued an order approving the class settlement in Lane v. Facebook, the class action lawsuit arising out of Facebook’s Beacon program. Background:…
Data Anonymization and Re-identification Lecture Featuring Paul Ohm, SCU, April 7
By Eric Goldman University of Colorado law professor Paul Ohm has written one of the most provocative privacy-related papers of the past few years, Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization. Using examples such as the…
FTC Privacy Roundtable Recap
By Eric Goldman [Introductory note: I have repeatedly criticized the FTC on this blog, and this post may implicitly criticize them as well. At the same time, I want to share a couple of compliments for the FTC. First, the…