internet – Page 5 – Duane Morris TechLaw

July 9, 2013July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

COPPA Now Includes Greater Protections For Kids Online

Last week, you were informed about the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updating advertising disclosure guidance for search engines. But there’s more! On July 1, new FTC rules went into effect that are intended to provide greater privacy protection for children online. Indeed, the rules are supposed to afford increased safeguards when it comes to data such as geo-location and social media information.

By way of background, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) became operative in 2000, in the early days of the commercial Internet. The law was designed to enable parents to control personal information collected from these young children in hopes that COPPA would prevent children under the age of 13 from being targeted via personalized online marketing messages.

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April 30, 2013July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

The Death of the Tax-Free Internet?

Last week, by virtue of a 63-30 procedural vote, the Senate moved forward with a bill called the Marketplace Fairness Act, with a final Senate vote set for May 6, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The bill, if it were to become law, would enable states to force online sellers nationally to collect sales tax with respect to their residents’ purchases.

In the past, online sellers were not in favor of the imposition of sales taxes on Internet transactions — indeed, these sellers had a competitive advantage over brick-and-mortar sellers, because purchases from online sellers were cheaper for buyers due to the lack of imposed taxes.

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April 2, 2013July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

Apps Gone Wild: Is There Anything They Can’t Do?

Once upon a time, I was known as Inspector Gadget. Why? Because I wore on my belt three different devices — a mobile phone, an iPod, and a Palm Pilot. The phone was only good for calls, the iPod could only play music, and the non-wireless Palm Pilot was simply a calendaring assistant.

I wondered then whether there could ever be convergence, such that at some point I only would need to carry around one device. Of course, that did happen, but the convergence occurred beyond my wildest dreams.

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March 12, 2013July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

Google Transparency Reveals FBI’s Use Of National Security Letters

Google has posted a “Transparency Report” that provides a range of how many National Security Letters (NSLs) it has received and a range of how many users/accounts were specified in these NSLs each year since 2009. Of course, your first question may be: What is an NSL?

An NSL is a special search vehicle by which the FBI has the authority to demand the disclosure of customer records maintained by banks, Internet Service Providers, telephone companies and other entities. When this happens, these entities are prohibited from revealing to others their receipt of an NSL. There have been reports that the issuance of NSLs has expanded significantly since the Patriot Act increased the FBI’s power to issue them.

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February 12, 2013July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

Hackers Strike Again: Federal Reserve and Ex-President Bush Targeted

Are hackers still out there causing mischief on the Internet? You bet! Indeed, our own Federal Reserve reported that one of its internal websites had been breached by hackers last week, according to Reuters.

The Reuters article notes that this follows an assertion that hackers associated with the activist group Anonymous had gained access to personal data relating to more than 4,000 bank executives. That data was then posted on the Internet.

A statement by a Federal Reserve spokeswoman stated that information had been obtained by “exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product.”

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December 5, 2012July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

Congressman On Reddit Proposes Moratorium On Internet Laws

Perhaps concerned about the potential for further iterations of anti-piracy laws, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) has proposed on Reddit legislation called the Internet American Moratorium Act (IAMA). The IAMA would seek to put an end to further Internet legislation for two years.

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August 29, 2012July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

Prince Harry Learns A Las Vegas Lesson

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.

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August 15, 2012September 12, 2014 by Sandra A. Jeskie

FTC Imposes a Record $22.5 Million Civil Penalty on Google for Privacy Misrepresentations

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.”

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July 26, 2012July 18, 2016 by Eric J. Sinrod

Russian Internet Bills Revive Soviet-Era Censorship Concerns

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.

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July 11, 2012September 12, 2014 by Duane Morris

Electronic Discovery Can Save Litigation Costs

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.