Privacy Law

Germany Ponders Possible Ban on Using Facebook Info for Hiring Decisions

As part of a new draft law that sets standards to protect worker privacy, Germany is considering a ban that would prevent employers from using social networking sites such as Facebook to make hiring decisions. Employers could still search the Internet for information about applicants and access public information on…

Aug 26, 2010 5:51 PM CDT

Canadian Lawyer Told to Hand Over Computer Used to Create False Online Personas

A crusading Canadian human rightslawyer has been ordered to turn over a laptop computer he used to create false personas on far-right websites to search for evidence that he may have secretly authored a racist comment against a black Canadian senator from Toronto. The ruling came in a libel suit…

Aug 20, 2010 6:09 PM CDT

Texas State Bar Releases 63,000 Lawyer E-Mail Addresses to Law Student

The State Bar of Texas is feeling some heat after officials released the public e-mail addresses of nearly 63,000 lawyers to a law student. Marni von Wilpert, a student at Fordham University School of Law in New York City, requested the e-mail addresses while a summer law clerk at the…

Aug 20, 2010 5:58 PM CDT

Morgue Photos Prompt Court-Ordered Ban, Civil Suit

Prompted by a morgue photo, a Venezuelan court has banned newspapers in the South American country from publishing violent images. But an editor for the El Nacional newspaper that published the photo said the ban was political and suggested that the publication might violate it, reports the Associated Press. The…

Aug 17, 2010 10:48 PM CDT

Pregnant Woman’s Forced Bed Rest Order Reversed

A Florida appeals court has ruled 2-1 that a Tallahassee judge was wrong to forcibly hospitalize a pregnant woman. The 1st District Court of Appeal held that the ruling violated Samantha Burton’s right to refuse medical treatment, the Associated Press reports. Writing for the majority (PDF), District Judge Clark Nikki…

Aug 12, 2010 8:58 PM CDT

Library Clerk Fired for Refusing to Disclose Her Weight and Height

An employee of an Iowa library has been fired for refusing to disclose her weight and height for inclusion on a city-issued identification card. Lisa Bonifas, a 37-year-old circulation clerk at the Urbandale, Iowa, public library, was fired in late July for “willfully choosing to not comply” with the city’s…

Aug 6, 2010 5:47 PM CDT

Cell Phone Tracking Puts Domestic Violence Victims at Risk

Tracking devices in cell phones can help locate users in an emergency, including children. But they can also help stalkers follow domestic abuse victims, reports the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). Because federal law allows cell phone companies to turn over location information to police without a warrant, the tracking…

Aug 5, 2010 5:16 PM CDT

Will ISPs Have to Tell the FBI if a Suspected Terrorist Googles or Friends You?

Can the government obtain a terrorism suspect’s Internet browser history without a court order? That’s a possibility under a bid by the Obama administration to make it easer for the FBI to obtain Internet data in terrorism probes, the Washington Post reports. Currently, the FBI can issue so-called national security…

Jul 29, 2010 3:35 PM CDT

Jeffs Wins Appeal of Rape Convictions Based on His Role as Minister at 14-Year-Old’s Wedding

Agreeing with defense lawyers that a claimed marital rape involving two teenagers hadn’t been properly focused upon in jury instructions, the Utah Supreme Court has overturned unusual felony accomplice rape convictions of a religious leader based on his role in promoting an underage marriage between an unwilling 14-year-old and her…

Jul 27, 2010 7:14 PM CDT

Lawyer in School Webcam Spy Case Wants $418K in Legal Fees Now as Case Continues

A lawyer representing a teenage high school student and his family in a would-be class action over alleged illegal spying via school-district-issued laptop computer webcams says he can ill afford to continue with the high-profile civil rights case without being paid. But because a federal judge has ordered the Lower…

Jul 27, 2010 4:57 PM CDT

Privacy Advocates Concerned About New Walmart Smart Tags

New smart tags being added to jeans and underwear in Walmart stores will allow employees to assess when a size or color needs to be restocked with the wave of an electronic wand. Walmart plans to post signs telling customers about the removable tags, the Wall Street Journal reports. But…

Jul 23, 2010 2:04 PM CDT

Naked Cowboy Sues Female Competitor, Says She Stole His Shtick

A New York man who has made a business out of playing a guitar in Times Square while seemingly wearing very little except a cowboy hat and his shoes has filed a federal lawsuit against a female competitor. Best known as the Naked Cowboy, Robert John Burck contends that comedian…

Jul 21, 2010 7:46 PM CDT

ESPN Sportscaster Erin Andrews Sues Hotel Chains Over Stalker’s Secret In-Room Taping

In a lawsuit likely to resonate with other women who travel alone on business, a well-known sportscaster for ESPN sued several hotel chains today in Illinois state court over video footage widely circulated on the Internet in which she is seen in a state of undress while in her room.…

Jul 15, 2010 11:12 PM CDT

Authorities Missed Earlier Chance to ID Suspect in ‘Grim Sleeper’ Killings

Authorities used controversial familial DNA testing to identify Lonnie David Frankin Jr. as a suspect in the “Grim Sleeper” serial murders. But they could have used Franklin’s own DNA, if it had been collected as required under a 2004 law, reports the Los Angeles Times. And doing so might have…

Jul 15, 2010 6:17 PM CDT

Does Bankruptcy Put a Gay Website’s Teen User Info Into Creditors’ Hands?

An effort by bankruptcy creditors to obtain the one valuable asset of a dying website—its database of information about 1 million subscribers and users—is raising privacy concerns both in the United States and abroad. Because the website is for XY Magazine, whose focus is on young men and teenage boys…

Jul 14, 2010 12:27 AM CDT