Anti-Marketing Laws and the Commercial Speech Doctrine

By Eric Goldman Prompted by the Supreme Court’s denial of cert in the White Buffalo case, Chris Hoofnagle of EPIC posted a nice rundown of some recent cases where anti-marketing laws survived a First Amendment challenge. He calls the 1999…

When Does a Privacy Policy Breach Support a Breach of Contract Claim? In re JetBlue

By Eric Goldman In re JetBlue Airways Corp. Privacy Litigation, 79 F. Supp. 2d 299 (E.D.N.Y. August 1, 2005) I’m late blogging this case, but the case is remarkable enough to warrant some comments even at this late date. As…

Report Challenges Value of Notifying Consumers of Data Security Breaches

By Eric Goldman ID Analytics has released a report trying to quantify the harms caused by data security breaches. The report sensibly distinguishes between different types of breaches–misappropriation of name and social security numbers are different, and in some ways…

California Anti-Phishing Law–Cal. B&P Code Sec. 22948

By Eric Goldman Going through my stack, I came across Cal. Business & Professions Code Sec. 22948-22948.3 (SB 355), California’s recently enacted anti-phishing law. In general, compared to other state anti-Internet behavior laws, this law is relatively targeted and unobjectionable….

Law Enforcement Collection of DNA

Recent legislative activity in the US Senate has brought some press attention to the touchy issue of DNA collection by law enforcement. Similar proposed and passed DNA legislation at the state and federal levels over the last several years has also drawn court challenges. As a result, a fair number of court opinions on the suject exist, enough to allow a quick look at the legal countours and legislative status of DNA collection laws.

Anti-Phishing Warning Protected by 47 USC 230

By Eric Goldman Associated Bank Corp. v. EarthLink, Inc., No. 05-C-0233-S (W.D. Wis. Sept. 13, 2005). [BNA subscription required] EarthLink’s “ScamBlocker” incorrectly identified Associated Bank’s website as a phishing site, so users trying to access the website saw a huge…

Jill, Meet Best Buy’s Friendly Human Shopbot/Profiler

I’m a little surprised this article hasn’t generated more discussion. Last week, the Washington Post ran an article about Best Buy’s efforts to segment and target its customer base. They have developed a set of consumer profiles that they describe…

Bellia on Spyware, and Searcy v. Microsoft

Patricia Bellia of Notre Dame Law School recently posted a paper on spyware and surveillance laws, Spyware and the Limits of Surveillance Law. She challenges those who believe that the Electronic Communications Privacy or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act…

Search Engines and Privacy…AGAIN?!

News.com and the Associated Press both ran stories last week about the possible ways that Google aggregates user data in a way that theoretically threatens privacy. Hmm…this sounds familiar…haven’t we heard this story before? Yes, only about a thousand times….

FTC Settles Another Case for Failure to Use Reasonable Security

In the Matter of BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc., File No. 042 3160. The FTC settled with BJ’S Wholesale Club over BJ’s allegedly deficient security practices. This is the second settlement of its nature in three months (the last being an…