Privacy Law

Is your photo online? Are you on Facebook? If so, retailers can ID you and your shopping profile

Decades ago, George Orwell wrote a famous novel, 1984, that envisioned a then-future world in which “Big Brother”—a totalitarian government—was watching its citizens through a variety of electronic gadgetry and might at any time bark orders at individuals through a loudspeaker or television screen. That world doesn’t yet exist, as…

May 20, 2013 1:40 PM CDT

If you live in a glass house, you may not win a privacy suit over a photo display, lawyer says

Residents of an upscale apartment building in New York City are in an uproar over a photo display at an art gallery. On exhibit are candid shots of residents taken with a telephoto lens by an artist who lives in a building across the street. Those in the Zinc Building…

May 17, 2013 9:45 PM CDT

Who’s really driving the alternative fee arrangements movement; Blogger stands up for privacy

Jean P. O’Grady, a knowledge strategist at DLA Piper took on this year’s Alternative Fee Arrangements at Legal Departments and Law Firms report at Dewey B. Strategic. And she noticed some other things on top of all of the stats about the prevalence of AFAs. “A careful reading of the…

May 3, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Cops can’t search cellphone seized at arrest, Florida Supreme Court says; will case go to SCOTUS?

A cellphone is different from a cigarette pack, the Florida Supreme Court says in a ruling requiring police to get a warrant before searching cellphones seized during an arrest. The ruling deepens the split on the constitutionality of cellphone searches incident to arrest, according to the Volokh Conspiracy. “The Florida…

May 3, 2013 1:02 PM CDT

Americans don’t want more government monitoring of cellphones and email to fight terror, survey says

After the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, more than half of the Americans responding to polls were willing to give up some civil liberties in exchange for greater security. But a poll taken a…

May 1, 2013 10:00 PM CDT

Dozens of ‘well-connected’ people granted secret court cases in Chicago area, including 5 judges

Five state and federal judges, as well as a number of lawyers, were among dozens of “well-off and well-connected” individuals who have had cases–often concerning domestic relations matters–either sealed by Chicago area judges or allowed to be filed using only the initials of the parties. Although the reasons routinely cited–financial…

Apr 30, 2013 3:30 PM CDT

A changing truth: Do online news stories about arrests constitute libel after expungement?

A class-action lawsuit scheduled for argument next month in Connecticut claims that the news media defamed arrestees in online news stories about criminal records that were later expunged. Lorraine Martin of Greenwich claims in the suit that news stories about arrests that were true at the time of publication became…

Apr 30, 2013 3:11 PM CDT

Did shock jock defame man with Down syndrome by R-word alteration of his photo? Suit seeks $18M

A Tennessee couple is suing over the online alteration of a photo of their son who has Down syndrome. The $18 million defamation suit filed by Pamela and Bernard Holland targets a shock jock radio show, the “Sign Generator” website, and an individual who posted the photo with a caption…

Apr 30, 2013 12:20 PM CDT

Privacy’s benefits are exaggerated, Posner says in op-ed

Privacy is really about concealing aspects of yourself from others, according to federal appeals judge Richard Posner. We want to hide our arrest records, medical histories and peccadilloes, Posner writes in a New York Daily News op-ed. “We want to present sanitized versions of ourselves to the world. We market…

Apr 30, 2013 11:05 AM CDT

Actress loses suit against website that revealed her real age

A federal jury in Seattle has rejected claims by an actress who sued the website IMDb for revealing her real age. Jurors rejected allegations by Huong Hoang, who goes by the stage name Junie Hoang, that the website violated its user agreement by using her account information to obtain her…

Apr 12, 2013 1:37 PM CDT

Man who paid hospital workers for patient info to sell medical and legal services gets 4 years

A man who admittedly paid husband-and-wife hospital employees over $10,000 to provide confidential patient information that was used to solicit individuals for additional medical and legal services was sentenced this week to four years in federal prison. Sergei Kusyakov, 39, pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to defraud the United…

Apr 10, 2013 4:22 PM CDT

Why is this lawyer’s driver’s license so popular?

Lawyer Brooke Bass’ driver’s license is apparently of great interest to people working for more than 100 agencies, most of them law enforcement, in the state of Minnesota. Bass’ license information was accessed more than 700 times in the past eight years, according to her lawyer, Kenn Fukuda, and she…

Apr 10, 2013 12:52 PM CDT

Retired NFL players who objected to publicity accord are ‘like children denied dessert,’ judge says

A federal judge has given preliminary approval to a settlement in a lawsuit that contended the National Football League was misappropriating the likenesses of retired players in promotions. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson of St. Paul, Minn., blasted some retired players who had complained that the settlement didn’t directly benefit…

Apr 9, 2013 1:25 PM CDT

Anonymous blogger wins round in Cooley’s defamation suit

The Thomas M. Cooley Law School lost a round in its bid to unmask an anonymous blogger when the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled last week that a trial judge erred when denying a protective order in the case. The appellate opinion (PDF) said the trial court failed to state…

Apr 9, 2013 12:07 PM CDT

Connecting the digital dots to catch the ‘Craigslist Killer’

When police responded to the April 14, 2009 murder of a young woman in an upscale Boston hotel, they had little to go on. Besides the victim, who was found face down in the doorway of her room, her hands bound with plastic ties, with three 9-mm bullet wounds to…

Apr 8, 2013 1:40 PM CDT