Dude, where are my clothes? Those might have been the words of Prince Harry when he learned that photos of him naked, but covering his royal private parts, had gone viral worldwide.
How did this happen? Apparently, his royal nakedness was partying in Las Vegas when someone snapped cellphone shots of him in the aftermath of a strip billiards game that then ended up on TMZ.com.
The London 2012 Olympics games were successful, and indeed spectacular, on many levels.
Of course, there were incredible performances by phenomenal athletes, including veterans like Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, as well as new breakout stars such as Missy Franklin and Gabby Douglas.
Great Britain also served up wonderful musical acts for entertainment purposes. Not only were we regaled by Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, George Michael, and bits and pieces from Queen and Pink Floyd, but we also witnessed the reunion of the Spice Girls (oh my).
On August 9, 2012, the FTC announced that Google agreed to pay a record $22.5 million civil penalty to settle charges that it made misrepresentations to users of the Safari Internet browser when Google represented that it would not place cookies or serve targeted ads to those users. In doing so, Google violated an earlier privacy settlement it had with the FTC.
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said “[t]he record setting penalty in this matter sends a clear message to all companies under an FTC privacy order. . . “[n]o matter how big or small, all companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers, or they will end up paying many times what it would have cost to comply in the first place.”
Some people wonder whether social networking is a passing fad that will diminish in importance and attention over time. However, a recent social networking study by the McKinsey Global Institute concludes that more than $1 trillion can be realized annually by the value chain of social technologies. When used across enterprises, these technologies have the potential to raise the productivity of high-skilled workers as much as 25%.
Continue reading “Social Networking Can Bring Big Profits To Businesses”
People tend to think that anything goes on the Internet. But is that true everywhere? Perhaps not. Indeed, according to a recent New York Times article, a series of controversial Russian Internet bills, approved last week by Parliament, seeks to strengthen the government’s Internet controls.
The Russian Parliament’s approval of the bills reportedly follows the Russian government’s imposition of fines relating to unsanctioned protests and the reinstitution of criminal charges for slander.
Continue reading “Russian Internet Bills Revive Soviet-Era Censorship Concerns”
Is the information you post via social media of potential governmental interest? Probably not, but still, it’s possible.
To bring home the point, Twitter just issued its first Transparency Report. That report details the number of government demands it has received for user information in the first six months of 2012.
What do the numbers reveal?
Continue reading “Twitter Transparency Reveals Government’s Social Media Demands”
Partner Sheila Raftery Wiggins was featured in an article on eDiscovery in NJBiz. Here is an excerpt:
Sheila Raftery Wiggins, a partner at Duane Morris LLP, says people communicate more from home, while traveling and over the Internet, creating more possible evidence for companies to store.
During litigation, the process of electronic discovery — reviewing and identifying what electronically stored information, out of potentially millions of documents, needs to be turned over to the opposing party — often is cumbersome and costly for companies, but a recent court ruling might lead to the more widespread acceptance of technology that could save companies money and time.
Read the rest of the article on the NJBiz website.
Lawyers should know how to protect information belonging to their firms and their clients, right? Well, perhaps they can do a better job, according to The Wall Street Journal. Indeed, it’s now more important than ever for lawyers’ cybersecurity skills to get up to speed.
According to the article, hackers intent on insider trading may target attorneys who handle merger and acquisition transactions. They could put links in text messages that, when clicked on smartphones, activate malware that could log keystrokes and record phone conversations.
Continue reading “Lawyers Must Do More To Protect Cybersecurity”
Eric Sinrod, a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris LLP, was quoted by The Washington Post in an article about a federal email spam jury trial. Click here to access the full article.
The Internet yields all sorts of disputes. Take the nine-year-old Scottish girl who was banned from posting photographs of school meals on her blog, which caused a firestorm of criticism.
Martha Payne, who by now has had in excess of three million hits on her blog at NeverSeconds.blogspot.com, started posting photos of her Scottish primary school lunches at the end of April. BBC News report that her “food-o-meter” rated each meal in terms of healthiness and how many mouthfuls it takes to consume the meal.
Continue reading “Blog Food Fight Leaves Egg On School’s Face”
