Colo. Lawyer Sues Over ‘Disgusting’ Airport Pat Downs

Another lawsuit has been filed challenging airport pat down searches, this one by a Colorado lawyer objecting to a search in San Diego. Lawyer Gary Fielder says he and his daughters, ages 9 and 15, were searched, as was a family friend, report the Associated Press and KDVR.com. The suit,…

Dec 1, 2010 1:04 PM CST

Click With Caution: Online Toolbox Can Throw Wrench Into Your Life

Dec 1, 2010 6:07 AM CST

Wikileaks Reveals Why US Declined to Implant Chips in Released Gitmo Detainees

Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan wasn’t enthusiastic when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia suggested a way to keep track of Guantanamo detainees who are released to foreign countries where terrorist groups operate. The king suggested implanting the detainees with tracking chips, similar to chips used in horses and falcons, the New…

Nov 30, 2010 12:37 PM CST

Airport Body Scanners May Violate Alito’s ‘Minimally Intrusive’ Test

The U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on the constitutionality of new airport screening technology that produces revealing body images and the alternative full-body pat downs, but one justice has looked at the issue. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. evaluated airport screening procedures when he was a judge on the Philadelphia-based…

Nov 29, 2010 11:30 AM CST

Stung By Escapes from Court, NYPD Now Uses Eye Scans to ID Defendants

Following several embarrassing incidents in which prisoners walked out of New York courts–one involving an inmate who successfully pretended to be a lawyer–a new policy has been put in place requiring guards to match defendants to scans of the irises in their eyes. However, the new technology has been criticized…

Nov 17, 2010 3:30 PM CST

Rutgers Suicide Case Sets Up Test of NJ Privacy Law

The case of two college students who used a computer to spy on a gay student’s romantic encounter could be the first legal test of New Jersey’s 2003 invasion of privacy law. Tyler Clementi, 18, committed suicide after the incident. Clementi’s roommate, 18-year-old Dharun Ravi, and another classmate, 18-year-old Molly…

Nov 8, 2010 10:30 AM CST

What’s in a Name?

Publicity rights lawyers are finding there’s plenty of value in a growing practice

Nov 1, 2010 9:54 AM CDT

Google Admits Street View Cars Snagged E-Mail & Passwords, Is Sued re Saved Search Queries

After an admission by Google Inc. last week that the cars collecting data for its Street View mapping service inadvertently snared some entire e-mails and passwords from unsecured wireless computer networks comes news of a new lawsuit against the Internet search engine goliath on another front. A San Francisco woman…

Oct 25, 2010 10:22 PM CDT

Can Gay Users Unintentionally Out Themselves to Facebook Advertisers?

Researchers from Microsoft and Germany’s Max Planck Institute reported in a recent paper that there are Facebook advertisements targeted to users based on sexuality, regardless of the user’s display preferences—and they say this has the potential to reveal a user’s sexuality to advertisers. The researchers experimented by setting up six…

Oct 21, 2010 9:20 PM CDT

Lawyer Sentenced to Anger Course After Elevator Incident with Social Security Judge

A federal magistrate judge found an Oregon disability claims lawyer guilty of disorderly conduct and sentenced him to a year of probation and an anger management course after a three-year series of incidents between Daniel Bernath and a social security judge escalated into an elevator altercation at an administrative hearing…

Oct 14, 2010 4:38 PM CDT

Canadian Court Ponders Whether Woman Must Remove Niqab to Testify at Sex Assault Trial

Overturning a lower court order requiring a Muslim woman to remove her niqab before testifying against two male relatives at a sexual assault trial, the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that a preliminary hearing judge should ponder the issue further before making a determination. While facial demeanor is important…

Oct 13, 2010 9:19 PM CDT

Amended Suit Claims Facebook Disclosed Personal Data to Advertisers

An amended lawsuit claims Facebook disclosed users’ personal information to advertisers when it began embedding additional data in website addresses in February. The suit by two Facebook users claims advertisers could access the embedded data in URLs to learn more about website users who clicked on their ads. The amended…

Oct 13, 2010 4:17 PM CDT

Legal or Not, ‘Scrapers’ Compile Data on What People Say Online

For years, court records and real estate transactions have been fair game for those who collect and compile data for others. But today much, much more is available online. And scrapers are digging up and organizing data ranging from cell phone numbers to social networking comments, for a price, reports…

Oct 12, 2010 11:56 PM CDT

Would-Be Baristas Have to Disclose Background, and So Should US Scientists, SG Says

Supreme Court justices appeared ready to reject a claim by contract scientists working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that a government background questionnaire violated their First Amendment right to informational privacy, according to news coverage of oral arguments on Tuesday. The Washington Post summarized the arguments this way: “The Supreme…

Oct 6, 2010 1:33 PM CDT

Hulk Hogan Settles Suit Over Cereal Ad Featuring ‘Hulk Boulder’ Character

Hulk Hogan has settled a lawsuit claiming Post Foods misappropriated his likeness in an advertisement for Cocoa Pebbles featuring a character called “Hulk Boulder.” Under the settlement, the commercial featuring a fight between Hulk Boulder and a victorious Bam-Bam will no longer be aired, the St. Petersburg Times reports. Other…

Sep 30, 2010 12:44 PM CDT