Privacy Law

Canadian lawsuit seeks $578M over dump of hacked info from Ashley Madison dating site

Two Canadian law firms filed a class action lawsuit in Windsor, Ontario, on Thursday over a much-publicized data dump this week by unknown hackers of information about users of the Ashley Madison dating site. Although a disabled widower is currently the only named plaintiff, attorney Ted Charney of Charney Lawyers,…

Aug 24, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Prosecutors drop case after federal judge rules laptop seized at border can’t be searched

Prosecutors have decided not to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that a warrant is needed to search a laptop seized at the border. Rather than appeal, federal prosecutors are seeking to drop charges against South Korean businessman Jae Shik Kim, the Blog of Legal Times reports. In a May decision,…

Aug 20, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Email secrecy claim by Pennsylvania’s AG appears at odds with newly released document

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane told reporters last week that charges against her for an alleged leak of grand jury material are part of a plan to keep her from releasing pornographic and offensive emails found on government computers. But a newly unsealed document (PDF) suggests the emails may be…

Aug 19, 2015 8:01 AM CDT

Police lack policies for use of facial recognition on suspects, NY Times says

In an era in which fingerprint technology has become a slow and sometimes inaccurate method of identifying suspects, police are moving to facial recognition software. But they are doing so without clear rules, in a manner in which some targets find intrusive and intimidating, reports the New York Times (reg.…

Aug 13, 2015 11:00 AM CDT

Insider traders used hackers to steal press releases, indictments allege

Nine traders, money managers and hackers have been indicted in an alleged scheme that involved hacking into press releases before their distribution and using the information for stock purchases. The scheme involved hacking into the computers of companies that published press releases, including Marketwired, PR Newswire and Business Wire, report…

Aug 12, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Acquitted man sues ‘Cold Justice’ producers and sheriff over claimed malicious murder prosecution

Acquitted earlier this year in the 1981 murder of his ex-wife, an Ohio man has filed a federal civil rights suit over a true-crime television show. In portraying the case in August 2014, TNT’s Cold Justice put him in a false light, Steven Noffsinger contends. The suit says that the…

Aug 11, 2015 12:35 PM CDT

Pennsylvania AG Kathleen Kane is charged in grand jury leak, accused of lying about it

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane was charged Thursday with leaking grand jury information and lying about it to a grand jury. Charges against Kane include obstructing justice, official oppression, conspiracy, perjury and false swearing, report the Legal Intelligencer (sub. req.), the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Allentown Morning…

Aug 6, 2015 11:54 AM CDT

Cops caught on pot raid video argue they deserved privacy after disabling all but one camera

Police officers in Santa Ana, California, are seeking to quash use of a video taken during their raid of a medical marijuana dispensary taken by a hidden camera they failed to disable. Lawyers for the officers argue they had a reasonable expectation of privacy after disabling other cameras during their…

Aug 5, 2015 10:34 AM CDT

Protections against domestic and sexual violence must be extended to all, ABA leaders say

The ABA’s House of Delegates addressed the hot-button issue of sexual violence with three resolutions passed on Tuesday. Resolution 109A was the first of three resolutions sponsored by the ABA’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence. It urges colleges and universities to recognize a right to an education free of…

Aug 4, 2015 2:50 PM CDT

Bar licensing groups urged to tread carefully when asking about mental health

Over some opposition, the ABA’s House of Delegates passed a resolution Monday urging lawyer licensing entities to focus on behavior rather than diagnoses when asking about mental health. In the winter of 2014, the Louisiana Supreme Court and Vermont Human Rights Commission received Department of Justice letters advising them that…

Aug 3, 2015 1:46 PM CDT

Racketeering suit is filed against anti-abortion group that released undercover videos

Updated: The National Abortion Federation filed a federal racketeering suit on Friday against the anti-abortion group that released undercover videos in which Planned Parenthood officials discuss the sale of fetal tissue and abortion methods. The July 31 suit (PDF) says the anti-abortion group, the Center for Medical Progress, created a…

Aug 3, 2015 10:43 AM CDT

7th Circuit questions the accuracy of Lex the drug-sniffing dog but upholds car search evidence

A federal appeals court has upheld a car search that uncovered cocaine, though it occurred after an alert by a drug-sniffing drug with a poor accuracy record. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said officers in Bloomington, Illinois, had probable cause for the search because Lex the drug-sniffing…

Aug 3, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

Chicago ponders possible drone rules, could require registration and insurance

Addressing a new technology, Chicago’s city council is pondering possible regulations on drones that would restrict hours of operation and require owners of the unmanned small aircraft to register them and provide insurance. An ordinance introduced Wednesday by Aldermen Edward Burke, who serves as finance committee chairman, and Scott Waguespack…

Jul 31, 2015 10:45 AM CDT

Google will fight French bid to extend ‘right to be forgotten’ worldwide

Google plans to appeal an order by France’s data protection agency that would extend the right to be forgotten to its search engine in all countries. The order by the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés, known as CNIL, “is a troubling development that risks serious chilling effects on…

Jul 31, 2015 8:04 AM CDT

US increasingly uses malware in law enforcement, expert says; should a warrant be required?

The Fourth Amendment should be interpreted to impose a warrant requirement when the U.S. government uses malware to hack computer systems for law enforcement purposes, according to a cybersecurity fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. The author of the article, posted at SSRN, is Jonathan Mayer,…

Jul 30, 2015 11:38 AM CDT