Baidu Can Maintain Negligence Claims Against Register.com for Lax Security Practices Which Allegedly Facilitated Cyber-Attack – Baidu v. Register.com

[Post by Venkat] Baidu, Inc. v. Register.com, Inc., Case no. 10 Civ. 444 (DC) (S.D.N.Y.) (July 22, 2010). Background: Baidu registered the domain name with Register.com, a domain name registrar, which provided Baidu with “Internet traffic routing services.” A third…

Facebook’s Anti-Spam Filter Blocks Legitimate Conversations about Power.com

By Eric Goldman On Friday, Venkat and I posted about the latest ruling in Facebook v. Power.com. After Venkat or I make a blog post, I typically post the blog headline and URL to Twitter. I have enabled the app…

Judge Denies Facebook’s Request for Judgment on the Pleadings and Strikes Power.com Counterclaims — Facebook v. Power.com

[Post by Venkat, with additional comments by Eric] Facebook v. Power Ventures, Inc., Case No. C 08-05780 (N.D. Cal. July 20, 2010) Background: Facebook and Power Ventures (Power.com) have been locked in a battle over whether Power.com should be allowed…

AOL’s Disclosure of Search Data May Support Claims Under California Law

[Post by Venkat] Does v. AOL LLC, Case No. C06-5866 SBA (N.D. Cal.; June 22, 2010) Plaintiffs bringing a class action against AOL for improper disclosure of search data scored in an initial victory in the Northern District of California….

Q2 2010 Quick Links Part 3 (Special Facebook Edition)

By Eric Goldman It’s been an exciting quarter for Facebook, which earned its own special quick links edition. I’ve also been prompted to take a step back and reassess my relationship with Facebook. From about 2007 through 2009, I really…

Q2 2010 Quick Links Part 2

By Eric Goldman Marketing and Advertising * Good talk from FTC Chair Leibowitz: “we have great hopes for self-regulation….So long as self-regulation is making forward progress, the FTC is not interested in regulating” behavioral targeting. * NYT on teaching middle…

The FTC Dings Twitter’s Security Practices — What Does This Mean for Everyone Else?

[Post by Venkat] In the Matter of Twitter, Inc. (FTC; June 24, 2010) (Consent Order) (FTC Press Release) Twitter recently agreed to a consent order with the FTC that requires Twitter to implement a variety of security measures with respect…

Judge Offers to Facebook ‘Friend’ Witnesses in Order to Resolve Discovery Dispute — Barnes v. CUS Nashville

[Post by Venkat] Barnes v. CUS Nashville, LLC, (M.D. Tenn) (June 3, 2010) I mentioned Barnes v. CUS Nashville in my post about Crispin v. Audigier, a case where a court found that production of private Facebook messages and postings…

Google Street View Litigation Mania–Seven Class Action Lawsuits and Counting

By Eric Goldman It appears that virtually the entire plaintiff’s bar saw Google’s blog post that it captured wi-fi payload data as part of its data collection for Google Street View. At least 7 class action lawsuits have been filed:…

9th Circuit Affirms Rejection of Data Breach Claims Against Gap — Ruiz v. Gap

[Post by Venkat with a few comments from Eric at the bottom] Ruiz v. Gap, Inc. (9th Cir. May 28, 2010) In a decision that does not bode well for plaintiffs bringing privacy-based claims against Facebook in California, the Ninth…