Hell hath no fury like a bureaucracy scorned. Do you know a person who insists on having his own way all the time and who wants to control your relationships with others? I hope not, but many of us do....more
Two media stories this week raised a stink about post-pandemic personal privacy as more sensors sniff out our secrets. The first discussed public analysis of wastewater for public health purposes. ...more
Private citizens have a right to remove significant falsehoods from the public record. The law of defamation clearly allows for retractions and damage payments if provable lies are published....more
8/25/2021
/ Damages ,
Defamation ,
EU ,
False Statements ,
First Amendment ,
Google ,
Objective Falsity ,
Personal Information ,
Photographs ,
Pornography ,
Privacy Laws ,
Public Figures ,
Right to Delete
We all want to protect our home and family.
How far would you go to secure the homestead? A monitored security system? Sure. A doorbell camera to record people approaching? Possibly. ...more
Our personal technology is so complex that making a change in one aspect is likely to affect us in many ways. When tech companies step into social issues, we are likely to see unintended consequences....more
8/11/2021
/ Apple ,
Child Abuse ,
Child Protection Laws ,
Communications Decency Act ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Electronic Devices ,
Encryption ,
FOSTA ,
iPhone ,
Minor Children ,
Photographs ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Safe Harbors ,
Sex Trafficking ,
Sexual Abuse ,
Technology Sector ,
Vulnerable Victims
As a tool for humans, cars replaced walking. For decades, automobiles were playthings for the rich. Yet these vehicles have been a cornerstone of our economy and culture since at least the Great Depression....more
AI is hungry for data.
Training and testing the machine-learning tools to perform desired tasks consumes huge lakes of data. More data often means better AI....more
We can’t seem to decide whether AI will replace humanity as the dominant intellectual force or it will simply be a sideshow never reaching its promise. Is AI the technology of the future, or will it always be so?...more
Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, signed the Colorado Privacy Act (“CPA”) into law on July 7th, 2021.
Colorado joins California and Virginia as the third state with a comprehensive privacy law in the United States. ...more
Is more information always better?
If someone wants to limit the use of information, and others want to expose, discuss or publicize it, who wins?...more
7/13/2021
/ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) ,
Data Collection ,
Data Deletion ,
Defamation Act ,
EU ,
FOIA ,
Google ,
Privacy Laws ,
Right to Be Forgotten ,
State Privacy Laws ,
Sunshine Laws
Columbia University Law Professor Tim Wu has written profoundly and persuasively for decades about anti-competitive behavior in the U.S. tech industry - from Western Union’s telegraph monopoly in the 1860s forward toward the...more
7/9/2021
/ Amazon ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Apple ,
Biden Administration ,
Big Tech ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Facebook ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Google ,
Microsoft ,
Monopolization ,
Presidential Appointments ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Sherman Act
Within the typical June end-of-term flurry of released decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court, one ruling that may have a significant effect on future privacy cases has flown under the radar of tech press.
The case,...more
7/2/2021
/ Article III ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) ,
Class Action ,
Class Members ,
Credit Reporting Agencies ,
Credit Reports ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
SCOTUS ,
Standing ,
TransUnion ,
TransUnion LLC v Ramirez
Top 3 Takeaways -
On Friday, June 4, 2021, the European Commission adopted two sets of standard contractual clauses, one for use between controllers and processors and one for the transfer of personal data to “third...more
We always suspected that the Amazon Echo resting quietly in your family room was more insidious than it seemed. Now we have confirmation. We know that the Echo can hear us. We also know that it records private conversations...more
6/23/2021
/ ALEXA ,
Amazon Echo ,
Amazon Marketplace ,
Connected Items ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Internet of Things ,
Oral Communications ,
Personal Assistants ,
Privacy Concerns ,
Security Systems ,
Wifi
If you want to keep tabs on criminals, build them a clubhouse. Provide them a comfortable place to relax and discuss their business, and you can learn about their contacts and activities. The strategy is not new....more
In Greek myth, Tithonos, prince of Troy, had an enviable life for a while. He was taken as the lover of Eos, goddess of the dawn. Things we going so well that Eos begged Zeus to grant immortality to Tithonos. And Zeus did –...more
Starting a business in the United States can open doors for massive opportunity and success. Along the way, however, businesses will encounter a number of legal and regulatory hurdles.
This “Guide to Starting Business in...more
As we learn more about the human brain, we can begin to wonder if the rest of the body is necessary. Improved brain-machine interfaces are showing us how much can be accomplished by tapping directly into our thoughts....more
Last week this blog discussed the gap between what businesses can afford to spend on protecting their own data and what hostile governments can spend to attack them. We observed that the U.S. government is already helping to...more
The recent spate of apparently eastern European cyberattacks on important U.S. commercial interests—from SolarWinds to Colonial Pipeline—should force all of us to step back and review how we organize our world. Many crucial...more
Business technology changes constantly, and every solution we implement has a lifespan. You may have been a Microsoft shop for the past thirty years, but your company is not currently operating on Windows 95. To run a...more
Just when you thought it was safe to send your data across the water, the distinctive dorsal fin of Schrems II breaks the surface.
The EU, who can barely be convinced that the UK’s data privacy law is “adequate” despite...more
When I was in college, I attended an old fashioned tent revival show. My roommate was taking a comparative religion class and I accompanied him to a number of spiritually-focused events outside the frame of most college...more
Eyes are important, don’t get me wrong. So are ears, noses, tongues, fingers, balance calibration organs and everything else that feeds that massive brain of yours. Salinity detectors in narwhals, electrical sensors in...more
If you want to make big money, offer something that people want, but no one else can offer.
The Portuguese sourced spices in the Fifteenth Century. Rockefeller locked up East Coast oil distribution in the Nineteenth Century....more