Partner demands website reveal identities of commenters who said they hated working at his firms

A name partner at California law firm Layfield & Barrett isn’t putting up with negative reviews of the firm posted by authors claiming to be current and former employees. Lawyer Philip Layfield tells Above the Law that former employees who “spew false information” and “spit their venom” on websites such…

May 18, 2016 5:45 AM CDT

Twitter reportedly bars US intelligence agencies from service that mines posts for terrorism alerts

A service that mined tweets to quickly alert U.S. intelligence agencies about the terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris won’t be providing that kind of information in the future. Twitter cut off intelligence agencies’ access to the terrorism-alert service provided by Dataminr Inc., apparently because of concerns the social media…

May 9, 2016 10:49 AM CDT

Judge OKs suit accusing Facebook of violating Illinois privacy law with its photo-tag technology

A federal judge has given a green light to a class action lawsuit contending that deployment of a Facebook feature using facial-recognition technology to tag photographs violates an Illinois privacy statute. Initially filed in Illinois and since transferred to California, the suit alleges that Facebook violated the Illinois Biometric Information…

May 6, 2016 9:55 AM CDT

School’s pact with feds over transgender locker room access sparks new lawsuit

A settlement by a suburban Chicago school district of a transgender high school student’s federal civil rights complaint over locker room access has now sparked new litigation. In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday in Chicago, a group of about 50 parents and students at Township High School in Palatine allege…

May 5, 2016 7:15 AM CDT

Police data initiatives come with crime victim safety concerns

The police department in Dallas, where a crime data initiative was recently launched, accidentally published the names, ages and home addresses of six alleged sexual assault victims, the Washington Post reports. The agency says that the circumstance was because of a technical error and is working to make sure any…

May 2, 2016 5:25 PM CDT

Circuits split on privacy rights for video views and third-party data sharing

Sharing consumer data derived from their online video views could violate privacy rights, the Boston-based 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday. The class action involves individuals who downloaded the USA Today app, Mediapost.com reports. The Gannett Co., which owns USA Today, shared users’ information with Adobe. A similar case…

May 2, 2016 11:45 AM CDT

Cybersecurity issues and advice steal the Techshow

May 1, 2016 1:40 AM CDT

Ex-cop is jailed until he reveals computer passwords; appeal claims Fifth Amendment violation

A former Philadelphia police officer is arguing a federal magistrate had no authority to send him to prison for refusing to reveal passwords to two encrypted computer hard drives. The former officer, Francis Rawls, has not been charged with a crime. He has been held in jail for seven months…

Apr 29, 2016 2:12 PM CDT

Law authorizing garbage inspections for composting scofflaws violates privacy rights, judge rules

A judge in Washington state has enjoined garbage-inspection provisions of a Seattle ordinance that bars residents from placing food waste or compostable paper in garbage containers. Judge Beth Andrus of King County ruled (PDF) on Wednesday, report the Associated Press and the Seattle Times. Andrus said provisions authorizing inspections of…

Apr 28, 2016 9:34 AM CDT

SCOTUS considers laws that make it a crime to refuse blood-alcohol tests

During oral arguments on Wednesday, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. appeared to be firmly on the side of states that make it a crime for drivers to refuse to submit to warrantless blood-alcohol tests. But several U.S. Supreme Court justices questioned why officers couldn’t get a warrant before conducting the…

Apr 21, 2016 9:57 AM CDT

Lawyers accused of using paralegal to friend litigant on Facebook are facing ethics probe

Ethics regulators may pursue a case against two lawyers accused of using a paralegal to friend a litigant and access nonpublic Facebook pages, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled in a decision on the power of the Office of Attorney Ethics. The supreme court ruled that the ethics office…

Apr 20, 2016 7:45 AM CDT

Monitoring of my Twitter account showed racial bias, state lawyer says in labor complaint

A lawyer with the Oregon Department of Justice claims he was the victim of racial bias when co-workers investigated his tweets that used the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Erious Johnson Jr. has filed a civil-rights complaint with the state labor department, along with a notice of intent to sue. Johnson is civil…

Apr 18, 2016 8:59 AM CDT

Can hacked data support fraud suit against Ashley Madison? Plaintiffs want to cite lawyer emails

Plaintiffs are seeking to cite hacked documents—including lawyer emails—to allege that the Ashley Madison dating website defrauded the public by creating fake female profiles to interest potential male clients. Plaintiffs in the multidistrict security-breach litigation contend they are entitled to refer to lawyer communications as a result of the crime-fraud…

Apr 18, 2016 5:45 AM CDT

Microsoft sues over law used to keep government access of customer emails a secret

Microsoft has filed a lawsuit challenging a law that creates a low standard for banning disclosure of search warrants seeking its customers’ digital information. Microsoft sued the Justice Department on Thursday in Seattle federal court, report the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.), Reuters, the Washington Post and the Seattle Times.…

Apr 15, 2016 7:55 AM CDT

Facebook capture of medical info from web searches by users violates HIPAA and other laws, suit says

Updated: A 2012 federal lawsuit over Facebook tracking of users filed by attorney Paul Kiesel was dismissed last year, with leave to refile. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila said the plaintiffs in the San Jose, California, case didn’t make clear how they suffered “a realistic economic harm or loss” due…

Apr 13, 2016 1:15 PM CDT