Laws of .com

Volume VII, Issue 5: March 12, 2009

Facebook Evidence in Personal Injury Proceeding

Departing Workers Taking Confidential Data

“Cloud Computing” Raises Concerns

Illinois County Sheriff Sues Craigslist for Prostitution

Facebook Sued Over Cyberbullying

PIPEDA Implications in Police Search of Passenger Manifest

Google and Cytrix Settle Respective Visual Voicemail Patent Suits

Facebook Evidence in Personal Injury Proceeding

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has delivered its ruling in Leduc v. Roman, a personal injury case resulting from alleged negligent driving on the part of the defendant. The issue was whether a plaintiff who maintains a private Facebook account could be compelled to produce elements of his profile, when no direct questions had been asked with respect to the same during the examinations for discovery. The Superior Court held that “a party who maintains a private or limited access Facebook profile stands in no different position than one who sets up a publicly available profile. Both are obliged to identify and produce any posting that relates to any matter in issue in an action.” However, the significant ruling was that the Court agreed that “mere proof of the existence of a Facebook profile does not entitle a party to gain access to all materials placed on that site.” It is through the discovery process that parties should be in a position to narrow down what profile content may be relevant to the case at hand.

For additional information, visit:
http://www.it-can.ca/newsletters/030609.pdf

Back to Headlines

Departing Workers Taking Confidential Data

The Ponemon Institute recently conducted an online survey of departing employees that indicates approximately 60% of them took some confidential information belonging to their former employer with them when they departed. The Ponemon survey was commissioned by Symantec, a software company that makes products tailored to prevent this type of data loss. This confidential information is being taken through USB memory keys, burned disks and through email accounts.

Employers appear to be very lax about this situation; 24% of departing employees indicate that they still had network access after having left the employer and less than 15% of employers had any mechanisms in place to monitor the conduct of departing employees. Of those employee exit programs, only about 25% were adequate to afford the employer any real protection. In light of the state of the economy and the likelihood of further job losses, this study should serve as a wake-up call to employers to keep a careful eye on their confidential data.

For additional information, visit:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10170006-83.html

Back to Headlines

“Cloud Computing” Raises Concerns

Increasingly observers are expressing concerns about the risks inherent in "cloud computing". Rather than keeping data on a local computer hard drive, “cloud computing” involves the use of web-based applications to store, manage and share files, from photos to tax returns, making the files conveniently accessible from any computer. Notable examples of such applications include Google Docs, the web-based version of QuickTax, and Acrobat.com from Adobe, that allows users to create PDF documents without installing software on their computers. Microsoft is also reportedly developing a web-based version of its Office software.

Observers are particularly concerned about possible privacy risks that include: unauthorized access to information through mistakes; not having appropriate security safeguards; targeted attacks or through users’ own computing habits (i.e. weak passwords or careless use of public computers). As the users’ data is normally under the control of a third party service provider, users may run the risk that their data will be mined for market research and advertising purposes. Another concern is the risk of lost data should the service provider go out of business, or suffer a technical breakdown.

For additional information, visit:
http://shorl.com/fonelohuvufo

Back to Headlines

Illinois County Sheriff Sues Craigslist for Prostitution

The Sheriff for Cook County, Illinois, has filed a lawsuit against Craigslist alleging that the "Erotic Services" section of its classified advertising website facilitates the solicitation of prostitution and has created the largest source of prostitution in America. Although Craigslist warns users that the solicitation of prostitution is prohibited and removes postings for which it receives specific complaints, nothing is done by Craigslist to proactively remove offending classified ads, some of which had been intentionally posted on the website by the Sheriff's department.

The Sheriff argues that while other websites simply allow ads to be posted, this case is different because the purpose of the Erotic Services section of the website is to facilitate prostitution, which means that Craigslist is not passive but is actively involved in the activity.

Craigslist has already taken measures to curb use of the website for prostitution and other illegal activities in response to similar complaints from the Attorneys General of various other states, although the effectiveness of those measures is being evaluated.

For additional information, visit:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_11845954

Back to Headlines

Facebook Sued Over Cyberbullying

An Oceanside, New York teenager has named Facebook, Inc., operator of the eponymous social networking site, a defendant in a $3M U.S. online defamation lawsuit. The suit alleges that four of the teenager’s classmates created a password-protected Facebook group on which they posted messages, “calculated to hold the plaintiff up to public hatred, ridicule and disgrace”. The teenager seeks to hold the four classmates, their parents and Facebook responsible for the statements. Online defamation lawsuits that name website providers as defendants are becoming increasingly common, however it remains unclear whether such suits have any legal merit. Section 230 of the U.S. federal Communications Decency Act provides immunity to interactive computer service providers such as blogs, forums, listservs, etc. for tort liability as long as the information is provided by a third party.

For additional information, visit:
http://www.newsday.com/iphone/ny-liface0312510748mar03,0,2290035.story
http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/finkel-v-facebook

Back to Headlines

PIPEDA Implications in Police Search of Passenger Manifest

In a recent decision of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, Justice MacDonald held that drug evidence supporting a charge of possession for the purposes of trafficking should be excluded. He based this decision solely on a finding with respect to the police search of the passenger manifest.

The police had attended at the Halifax offices of Westjet Canada, a national air carrier, and, with the permission of Westjet staff, reviewed the passenger manifest. Justice MacDonald observed that the information recorded on the Westjet manifest went to a “biographical core of personal information”. Specifically, the information records could reveal physical or mental disabilities, allergies or religious affiliations. The Court noted that this information was not available to the public. Thus, such highly personal information would be protected under Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

Notably, the Court observed that even if the police had made a request to view the information under PIPEDA, the request would have been denied since, in this situation, the police were merely “fishing” for information. While PIPEDA allows for the release of personal information for specific law enforcement purposes such as official, active investigations and intelligence gathering, that does not mean the police were entitled to simply consult the manifest whenever they wanted to see whether anything suspicious had arisen.

For additional information, visit:
http://www.it-can.ca/newsletters/030609.pdf

Back to Headlines

Google and Cytrix Settle Respective Visual Voicemail Patent Suits

Google Inc. and Cytrix Systems Inc. have respectively settled patent suits with serial inventor Judah Klausner and Klausner Technologies, Inc. in relation to visual voicemail (VVM). Klausner has achieved licenses with over 20 companies as part of its recent settlements with LG, Apple, AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Klausner’s targets are wireless network, mobile handset, and VOIP equipment and service companies as well as enterprise users.

VVM allows mobile phone or computer users to view and select voice messages from mobile phone or computer screens, similar to email.

For more information, see:
http://tinyurl.com/klausner-patent-suit-vvm
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5284NS20090309

Back to Headlines