Google now has until September 20, 2013 to revise its Privacy Policy or be fined by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) which is dissatisfied with Google’s March 2012 Privacy Policy. In April, 2013 six EU states (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United-Kingdom) launched an enforcement
Google Books Defeats Copyright Infringement Class Action
By Peter Vogel on
On July 1, 2013 the Authors Guild lost its bid to certify a class of authors against Google Books. The lawsuit was filed in 2005 claiming that the Google did not have the right to copy books from its Partners (publishers and authors) and Libraries including: Austrian National Library…
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EU Asserts Jurisdiction Over Google’s Servers
By Peter Vogel on
Internet jurisdiction may have taken an interesting turn now that the EU asserted that servers outside the EU are subject to EU law. On June 25, 2013 Niilo Jaaskinen, the independent Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, issued an Opinion that the EU Data Protective Directive applies to…
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Super Users Control All IT Systems
By Peter Vogel on
In every IT shop someone has to be in charge of the system including all accounts, passwords, data, and security, which is endemic to IT systems and has always been the case. System administrators who have access to special user accounts are often call Super Users, because somebody has…
Google Ordered to Comply with French Privacy Law
By Peter Vogel on
In March 2012 Google changed its Privacy Policies much to the dissatisfaction of many countries in the EU, but in spite of the complaints Google has not changed its Privacy Policies. In October 2012 a letter was sent to Google demanding changes within 4 months by CNIL (Commission nationale de…
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Social Media and Jury Duty
By Peter Vogel on
For those of us who have ever served on a jury we know that our job is try to decide who is right and wrong, and assess damages or jail terms, but now Social Media has changed jury duty in many ways. Recently I had to fill out a jury…
Second Life Avatars Class Action Settles
By Peter Vogel on
A federal judge certified a class at least 57,000 Second Life property owners who lost their virtual property, which led to a settlement of 43 million Linden dollars, or $172,000 according to the American Lawyer. In November 2012 US Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu in the Northern District of…
Privacy in the Cloud?
By Peter Vogel on
It is very old news that governments have access to cloud data on the Internet, but recent headlines about Prism make it seem that people are surprised to learn about the actual lack of Internet privacy.. Computerworld reported that the EU has “delayed a vote on what authorities can…
Invasion of Privacy by Google, Facebook, & Apple?
By Peter Vogel on
Initial reports that Verizon provided phone data has expanded and now includes “Internet surveillance …including e-mail, chat services, videos, photos, stored data, file transfers, video conferencing and log-ins” as reported by the New York Times as part of PRISM under federal oversight by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the…
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Facebook Friend Not a Reason for Judicial Bias
By Peter Vogel on
When the Judge got a Facebook message from a friend the Judge did not read the message and posted a copy in the Court files and told authorities to avoid any bias. The Facebook friend was the father of a woman who asked that the defendant get the maximum penalty…
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