At time when cybersecurity is headline news around the world, partisan politics in the U.S. Senate got in the way of new a cybersecurity bill which was different than a bill passed in the U.S. House last April. The New York Times reported that the most vocal opponent of the…
Continue Reading Internet Politics – Senate Filibuster Blocks Cybersecurity Bill
Google confessed to U.K. officials that Google still has Street View unprotected wifi data collected before 2010 in spite claims that such data had been destroyed. On July 27, 2012 Peter Fleischer (Google’s global privacy counsel) sent a letter to Steve Eckersley (head of enforcement) at the Information Commissioner’s Office…
A law professor concluded that Justices on the Supreme Court regularly use Google since apparently Opinions issued by the Supreme Court cite facts never offered by the lawyers’ briefs. Professor Allison Orr Larsen (William & Mary Law School) studied 15 years of Supreme Court decisions and concluded that the Justices…
Continue Reading No Surprise – US Supreme Court Relies on Google
A recent ruling overturned the 2010 case where Judge Shira Scheindlin concluded that failing to issue a litigation hold was per se gross negligence. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals on July 10, 2012 ruled in Chin v. Port Authority of New York New Jersey that failure to issue a litigation hold…
Continue Reading Litigation Hold for eDiscovery – Gross Negligence Standard Rejected
In 2009 Microsoft agreed to offer EU customers a browser choice of 12 options until 2014, but apparently Windows 7 released in February 2011 did not contain that option. As result Joaquin Almunia (Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Competition Policy) announced on July 17, 2012 that and…
Continue Reading EU Claims that Microsoft Breached Antitrust Settlement Agreement
All drivers want to save money on auto insurance, however the cost of personal privacy may be at stake with these new discount programs. A recent report in the Wall Street Journal described how State Farm and Progressive now offer discounts to drivers who allow access to on-board devices, some of…
Continue Reading Do Drivers Really Want to Give GPS Data to Auto Insurers?
Law enforcement agencies got text messages and caller location (GPS data) 1.3 million times in 2011, which was the first public report of such information. The New York Times reported that a request from US Congress led to this public disclosure. The New York Times reported that:
AT&T alone now responds…
Continue Reading Privacy at Stake? 1.3 Million Inquiries in 2011 for Cell Subscriber Information
Laws around the world allow governments free access to data on the Cloud which may come as a surprise to many, but Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) facilitate cooperation across international boundaries. On May 23, 2012 Hogan Lovells published a White Paper entitled “A Global Reality: Government Access to…
Continue Reading Reality Check – Governments Have Easy Access to Data on the Cloud
Few General Counsel and attorneys understand the important contracts terms to negotiate in order to avoid disasters when developing new software systems or implementing ERP systems. On July 18, 2012 from 12:30-1:30pm CDT my friend John DeGroote (Former Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at BearingPoint, Inc.) and I…
The cloud is hot, and headline news around the world! The legal risks for businesses can be substantial and impact all cloud customers. To learn more, please watch my recent video interview entitled “Cloud Computing: New Buzzword, Longstanding Concerns.” The interview by Financial Management Network (& parent SmartPros…
