Privacy Law

Suit seeks release of secret legal opinions by Justice Department

A lawsuit seeks to force the U.S. Justice Department to make public all binding legal opinions by the Office of Legal Counsel. The federal suit was filed on Tuesday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, according to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times and a press release.…

Aug 29, 2013 11:15 AM CDT

Obama: NSA revelations about inadvertent data collection show ‘oversight worked’

Responding to revelations this week that the National Security Agency may have unlawfully collected thousands of emails from Americans, President Barack Obama said the news demonstrates safeguards are in place. “The point is, all these safeguards, checks, audits, (and) oversight worked,” Obama told CNN’s New Day in an exclusive interview…

Aug 23, 2013 12:00 PM CDT

Miranda wins partial court victory over data seized at Heathrow

David Miranda, the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, has won a partial court victory over data seized while he was traveling home to Brazil through London’s Heathrow airport earlier this week. Lord Justice Beatson and Judge Kenneth Parker on Thursday issued an injunction blocking the investigators from using or…

Aug 23, 2013 11:25 AM CDT

NSA may have gathered ‘tens of thousands’ of emails under discontinued program, court says

The National Security Agency may have unlawfully collected as many as tens of thousands of emails and other electronic communications between Americans under a now-discontinued surveillance program, according to a newly declassified secret court opinion. The 2011 opinion, declassified by U.S. intelligence officials Wednesday, shows why the surveillance program was…

Aug 21, 2013 8:30 PM CDT

HIV-positive man can’t be prosecuted for consensual sex after disclosing status, state court says

An HIV-positive man cannot be prosecuted for engaging in consensual sex after disclosing his HIV status to his partner, the Minnesota Supreme Court has held. The court, in a 5-0 decision (PDF) (with two abstentions) Wednesday, found that the law applies to the donation or exchange for value of blood,…

Aug 21, 2013 7:14 PM CDT

Brazilians consider privacy laws in wake of NSA surveillance revelations

Online U.S. and global businesses selling to Brazil-based consumers may have new privacy laws to contend with in the wake of concerns over revelations about National Security Agency surveillance activities. The federal government in Brazil has proposed legislation that would force companies to store personal data collected about Brazilians on…

Aug 21, 2013 2:59 PM CDT

Facial-scanning system for crowds shows improvement in tests by Homeland Security

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security tested a crowd-scanning system last fall that could be used to identify faces of people on a terrorism watch list. The government decided the technology wasn’t ready to be used, though the test results showed that researchers are making significant progress, the New York…

Aug 21, 2013 1:40 PM CDT

Groklaw founder shuts down the blog, citing fear of email surveillance

Updated: The founder of Groklaw has decided to shut down the technology blog because of fears its email communications could be subject to government surveillance. Former paralegal Pamela Jones founded Groklaw in 2003 to cover legal news of interest to the free software and open source community. In this final…

Aug 21, 2013 11:20 AM CDT

Justices send each other paper memos, not email messages, Kagan says

When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was asked at an appearance Tuesday whether the justices email each other, she responded that they send each other paper memos—just like they did when she was a Supreme Court clerk in 1987. “The justices are not necessarily the most technologically sophisticated people,”…

Aug 20, 2013 7:12 PM CDT

Don’t fall for phone scam targeting ‘potential jurors’, warns federal judge

Reports of a telephone scam, involving accusations of shirking federal jury duty, are prompting courts to remind the public that they rarely contact potential jurors by phone. Such calls have been reported in New Mexico and Utah, said U.S. Courts spokesman Charles Hall to the ABA Journal. The individuals targeted…

Aug 20, 2013 4:25 PM CDT

Surveillance court chief says it must rely on government to provide accurate information

President Obama has sought to reassure Americans about U.S. surveillance of phone call and Internet records by pointing to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. At a June news conference, Obama said the court’s judges have lifetime tenure and “they’re empowered to look over our shoulder at the executive branch to…

Aug 16, 2013 12:54 PM CDT

NSA broke privacy rules thousands of times in one-year period, Snowden leak reveals

An audit leaked by Edward Snowden to the Washington Post reveals that the National Security Agency collected or accessed legally protected communications 2,776 times in a one-year period at facilities in the Washington, D.C., area. Most of the errors were unintended and involved surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets…

Aug 16, 2013 12:29 PM CDT

Facebook settlement that awarded zilch to class members is challenged in cert petition

A cert petition before the U.S. Supreme Court seeks to overturn a settlement agreement in which Facebook agreed to pay about $6.5 million to establish a new foundation to protect privacy rights. The cy pres settlement is being challenged by objectors who include Ted Frank of the Center for Class…

Aug 14, 2013 10:45 AM CDT

Cheerleader’s defamation verdict against thedirty.com is upheld

A federal judge has upheld a $338,000 defamation verdict against thedirty.com obtained by a former Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader. U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman said the website and its founder weren’t protected from liability because they played a significant role in developing the content, the Associated Press reports in stories posted…

Aug 13, 2013 4:19 PM CDT

Meet Bruce Fein, the lawyer representing Edward Snowden’s dad

Constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein is an originalist who opposed the Patriot Act and supports the right to be left alone. He is also the pro bono lawyer for Lon Snowden, the father of Edward Snowden. The Washington Post profiles Fein, 66, in an article that notes his “fashion-resistant” glasses, his…

Aug 13, 2013 11:15 AM CDT