Vogel Internet, Information Technology and e-Discovery Blog : Texas Internet, Information Technology, eCommerce & E-Discovery Lawyer & Attorney Peter S. Vogel : Gardere Wynne Sewell Law Firm : Dallas TX

A proposed law in Germany will restrict employers from using Facebook, and other truly social Social Media sites, when recruiting. However the law would allow employers to search business Social Media sites such as LinkedIn. Since there are no current guidelines in Germany about employer’s use of Social Media content these new laws will help establish guidelines. Of course there are no specific guidelines in the US where about 30% of the estimated 500 million Facebook users reside. Currently most employers review Social Media postings to make hiring decisions and until judicial reviews and statutes are enacted this will continue. However what people post of Facebook, and other Social Media sites, is often quite amazing which is why Eric Schmidt (Google CEO) recently opined that “people will one day change their name and reinvent themselves in order to escape their digital past.”

Most People Don’t Want to be Located

Facebook’s new location based Places has sparked new privacy issues about disclosing one’s whereabouts from the GPS cell devices that we carry. However according to Forrester Research only about 4% of Americans have adopted these location based services notwithstanding a recent report indicated that venture “capitalists have poured $115 million into location start-ups since last year, … and companies like Starbucks and Gap have offered special deals to users of such services who visited their stores… Shopkick, which became available this month, offers coupons to people when they walk into stores like Best Buy and Macy’s.” Nonetheless many people feel that their privacy is compromised by disclosing their location, so location based Social Media will be an interesting social evolution to watch.

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Google CEO Eric Schmidt “fears that too much information is shared online, and predicts that people will one day change their name and reinvent themselves in order to escape their digital past.” Not a very surprising observation given the explosive growth of Social Media, and proliferation of information helps and hurts trial lawyers. There were an estimated 1.5 trillion text messages in 2009 and estimated 210 billion emails each day… but how many in 2010 and thereafter? If people change their identities our ability to find evidence and witnesses will change, but finding meaningful evidence may be the greater challenge given the volume of electronic information which continues to grow a phenomenal pace.

Google Expands its Retail Presence

Google recently acquired like.com which increases its Products engine to sell retail products whether its clothing, computers, or snacks. Like.com founded in 2004 provides a “visual search engine focused on shoes, clothes, jewelry and décor,” and also owns covet.com which is a personal shopper from hundreds of online stores. Covet.com offers Stylyzer to learn about the shopper’s preferences. Since Google retains all search engine queries for 18 months one might wonder how Google will marry retail shopping preferences into search engine results.
 

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Plagiarism is alive and well on college campuses however it is no wonder since the Internet and Social Media have changed communications. Without question Wikipedia has become a reliable source for students and at least 16 US intelligence agencies. Many question the authenticity of Wikipedia, but if the US intelligence community can rely on Wikipedia I guess the information’s reliable. But plagiarizing Internet information is part of a larger social issue that college students today believe that any information on the Internet is free game to include in their course assignments. Perhaps this is not a new phenomenon, rather professors can use Internet search tools to determine if students are plagiarizing which was not available when information only available in books when I was a college student.

Who Needs eMail or a Watch?

As Social Media morphs it’s no wonder that college students rely on cell phones for knowing the time and sending text messages in lieu of email. Remember that in 2009 there were 1.5 billion text messages sent, and with Facebook’s estimated 500 million friends the shift of communications probably indicates more postings on Facebook and that eMail will to decline from the estimated 210 billion sent each day….of course 70% are probably SPAM.  Interesting to see how Social Media evolves.

Where’s the Evidence?

Without question courthouses in the US have changed forever as a result of Social Media and the increase in text messages and eMail. However for more than 30 years my clients’ litigation has been limited to disputes about computer technology and Internet services which means that every lawsuit has had eEvidence. Recently I participated in a webcast with US Magistrate Judge Paul Grimm who wrote the well respected opinion in Lorraine v Markel (about the admissibility of eEvidence) and Judge Grimm pointed out how much more education is necessary to raise the water level for Judges and lawyers. Courthouses will never be the same, so Judges and lawyers have to understand more about Social Media communications.

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A court recently ruled that the use of GPS tracking data in a drug distribution case violated the defendant's constitutional rights and the police needed a warrant. The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a brief in support of Antoine Jones that his expectation of privacy was violated by the GPS device placed on his vehicle. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned Jones conviction in the case of US v. Maynard. One may wonder if the GPS was tracked from a cell phone if the outcome would have been different. Since our cell phones have GPS data, it is any wonder that police might use the GPS cell data to track us? This court decision apparently protects us, at least for the time being.

Facebook About to Release Geolocation Features

A recent report indicates that Facebook will provide “location-aware data to become a part of existing platform applications,” which will compete with Foursquare and Twitter Places. Facebook already owns Hot Potato which is a check-in service and offered to buy Foursquare for $120 million which was rejected. Clearly Social Media is using geolocation data, and this will definitely grow! How courts rule about the use of GPS and geolocation data in Social Media in the wake of the the Maynard case will be interesting to monitor.

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Why Congress banned Internet gambling in the US in 2006 is a great mystery particularly since one major result of the ban was Internet gambling went offshore as did the possible tax revenues to the US. By lifting the ban Congress will have a new source of revenue. The Congress is considering legislation would direct the Treasury Department to license and regulate Internet gambling operations and allow the Internal Revenue Service to tax Internet gambling. Since my home state Texas cannot figure what to do about gambling the neighboring states (New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Louisiana) have all created havens for gambling, and a result gambling revenues from Texas are sent offshore to web-based gambling and our neighbors. Surely the Internet gambling tax revenue could help the economy, and I hope our elected representatives get this message.

Is an Internet Sales Tax coming?

Where a taxable transaction takes place on the Internet has always been a challenge. In 1992 the US Supreme Court ruled that retailers only had to collect sales tax in states where they have a physical presence. Congress is now considering Internet sales taxes as local government have lost significant tax revenues from Internet transactions. However, if I buy a book from Amazon which is in Washington state, the book may ship from Kansas, and the server on which I purchased the book could be in California. How can anyone figure out where the taxable event took place?

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A recent report that the White House wants the FBI to have access to an individual’s Internet activity may help with investigation of terrorism or intelligence, but what about our expectation of privacy? Notwithstanding all of Mark Zuckerberg’s recent comments about privacy, last winter Zuckerberg he told a live audience that if he were to ‘create Facebook again today, user information would by default be public.’ Also Google CEO Eric Schmidt admitted in a CNBC interview that under the US Patriot Act that Google would turn over user information (which Google maintains for 18 months) without question. So maybe we have less privacy than we may think, but in the name of national security alone does it make sense for the White House/FBI to not even both getting a federal judge to issue a subpoena?

COMPANY PRIVACY: Social Engineer Defcon Contest

At the annual Defcon meetings (July 30-August 1) in Las Vegas there was a 3 day contest to see which Social Engineer could get the most company data from 30 companies. The FBI is not too happy, but after consulting lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation the following contest rules were created:

Each Social Engineer is sent via email a dossier with the name and URL of their target company chosen from the pool of submitted names.

Pre-Defcon you are allowed to gather any type of information you can glean from the WWW, their websites, Google searches and by using other passive information gathering techniques. You are prohibited from calling, emailing or contacting the company in any way before the Defcon event. We will be monitoring this and points will be deducted for “cheating”.

The goal is to gather points for the information obtained and plan a realistic and appropriate attack vector. The point system will be revealed during the Defcon event. All information should be stored in a professional looking report. 1 week prior to Defcon you will submit your dossiers for review to the judging panel.

Stay tuned to see how successful the Social Engineers were in getting information from these 30 companies. How easy will it be to get information? We all know the answer, pretty easy!
 

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