Tea Party Alliance and ACLU back Minnesota amendment to protect email from warrantless searches

A proposal to amend Minnesota’s constitution to protect emails and texts from warrantless searches has met some resistance in the state senate. State lawmakers must approve the proposal before it is put before voters in November, report the Minnesota Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Among those supporting…

Feb 18, 2015 10:26 AM CST

Advocacy group for the deaf sues Harvard, MIT; allege lack of closed-captioning for online courses

An advocacy group for the deaf sued Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Thursday over a claimed lack of closed-captioning in their online educational materials. Filed in federal court in Boston by the National Association for the Deaf, the two suits say the elite schools are violating…

Feb 12, 2015 12:50 PM CST

Facebook will allow users to name ‘legacy contact’ in case of death

For nearly a decade, Facebook has responded to notification that an account holder is deceased by verifying the death and freezing the account so no changes could be made. However, on Thursday the social media giant said it will now allow account holders to name a “legacy contact” who will…

Feb 12, 2015 9:35 AM CST

Hired hackers aided corporate lawsuits, federal indictment alleges

Two private detectives in California are accused in a federal indictment of hiring computer hackers to obtain information from litigants in civil lawsuits. Private detectives Nathan Moser of Menlo Park and Peter Siragusa of Novato are accused of hiring computer experts to hack into computers, email and Skype accounts. In…

Feb 12, 2015 8:06 AM CST

Be careful what you say when your smart TV is on, Samsung warns customers

Do you have a smart television? Better watch what you say in front of the TV set, Samsung is warning its customers. Even if the owner opts out of the voice-recognition feature, which allows owners to request content by simply asking for it, the set will still capture what is…

Feb 9, 2015 10:15 AM CST

Katy Perry’s lawyers assert Left Shark copyright, send cease-and-desist letter to 3D printer

Lawyers for Katy Perry sent a cease-and-desist letter to a 3D printing company selling Left Shark, the uncoordinated costumed character who danced next to the singer during the Super Bowl. Greenberg Traurig confirmed that its letter to the company, Shapeways, is authentic, CNN reports. The letter says Katy Perry owns…

Feb 9, 2015 5:45 AM CST

Where should the line between free speech and accountability be drawn on social media?

A panel at the ABA’s Midyear Meeting today debated whether, and how, social media should change rules that draw the line between free speech and threats. “Free Speech and Accountability on Social Media: Where to Draw the Line?” looked at the recent U.S. Supreme Court case of Elonis v. United…

Feb 6, 2015 9:00 PM CST

Hack on health insurer exposes personal info of 80 million customers and employees

In what may be largest data breach ever reported by a health insurer, Anthem Inc. has announced that a hack attack discovered last week obtained personal information for as many as 80 million customers and workers, including the company’s chief executive officer. The intruders got names, addresses, dates of birth…

Feb 5, 2015 3:45 PM CST

Claimed ‘digital kingpin’ of hidden Silk Road drug-sale website is convicted, could get life

A California man portrayed by federal prosecutors as the mastermind behind a hidden website that generated $213 million in illicit sales over a period of a little more than two years was convicted Wednesday by a New York jury on all counts. Ross Ulbricht, 30, had argued at trial that…

Feb 5, 2015 10:15 AM CST

Snapchat photo of incontinent nursing home patient leads to arrest and guilty plea for nurse’s aide

A former nurse’s aide at a nursing home in upstate New York has pleaded guilty to violation of health laws after he was accused of posting a genitals photo of an incontinent nursing home patient on Snapchat. The aide, 21-year-old Edward Melock of Depew, was accused of sending the photo…

Feb 4, 2015 7:50 AM CST

Revenge-porn website operator is convicted; prosecutor notes ‘vindictive’ is in his online alias

The operator of a revenge porn website called YouGotPosted.com faces up to 20 years in prison after his conviction on Monday on 21 counts of identity theft and six counts of extortion. Judge David Gill of San Diego superior court in California ordered defendant Kevin Bollaert jailed on $500,000 bond…

Feb 3, 2015 10:37 AM CST

People with disabilities want the Internet to be more accessible

Feb 1, 2015 3:00 AM CST

Emoticons matter, judge rules in Silk Road trial

Jurors in the trial of the man accused of running the online black-market bazaar Silk Road should consider how emoticons are used in email evidence, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest of Manhattan ruled after the lawyer for defendant Ross Ulbricht complained that prosecutors had failed…

Jan 30, 2015 5:45 AM CST

Are app-summoned workers contractors? Suits seek protections; profs say new category needed

Workers who find jobs through apps such as Uber are questioning whether they are being wrongly classified as independent contractors who aren’t covered by minimum-wage laws and other protections. Lawsuits filed against cleaning and handyman service Handy and digital jobs service CrowdFlower claim workers are employees, rather than contractors, the…

Jan 29, 2015 5:45 AM CST

2nd Circuit nixes libel suit over ‘scarlet letter’ news stories that survived expunged arrest record

Although Lorraine Martin succeeded in making her 2010 marijuana-possession arrest a legal fiction, that doesn’t mean news organizations must expunge their stories about the since-dropped case, an appeals court has ruled. A Connecticut statute “creates legal fictions, but it does not and cannot undo historical facts or convert once-true facts…

Jan 28, 2015 3:20 PM CST