The year was 2010. That was the last time Congress seriously contemplated privacy regulation. In November that year, the Republicans retook both the House and the Senate. When President Obama attempted to offer a “Privacy Bill of Rights” in 2015, it went nowhere. The only significant privacy legislation since then has been the repeal of…
While the Tech Giants have benefited from the “light-touch” regulatory approach taken in the United States, European regulators are increasingly flexing their muscles in the area of taxation, antitrust, content moderation and privacy. This is even before any potential retaliatory action taken in response to President Trump’s proposed tariffs on steel and threat of a…
Australian State Supreme Court Grants Individuals the Power to Censor the Internet Australian Dr. Janice Duffy, was unhappy with the services of psychics offered by the website Kasamba and expressed her dissatisfaction through posts under various alias on RipOffReport.com (“ROR”). The psychics responded in kind, with ROR posts accusing Duffy of stalking and harassing psychics. Duffy…
EU Announces Antitrust Charges Against Google European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager (Denmark) announced it has served Google with a formal complaint (called a Statement of Objections) alleging that it unfairly prioritized its own Google Shopping search results over comparison shopping sites. if the charges are proven, Google could face up to $6.4 billion in fines. At…
Silicon Beach is Booming and Shifting to Playa Vista Things are looking bright for Silicon Beach. Entrepreneur Magazine reports that according to the L.A. Economic Development Council, the city has more people employed in high-tech jobs (368,500) than any other metro region in the U.S. In addition, according to the Kaufman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity the city claimed…
GOOGLE RECEIVES 160,000 RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN REQUESTS, PROVIDES CLARITY ON PROCESS In discussing the European Court of Justice’s decision on the Right to be Forgotten, it is important to note that it was not addressing proposals to permit users to exit from social media and delete their accumulated content. Instead, the ECJ was addressing…
The Mounting Cost of the NSA Scandal: “Severe and Getting Worse” In the last few weeks, the New American Foundation (NAF) released its report, “Surveillance Costs:The NSA’s Impact on the Economy,Internet Freedom & Cybersecurity,” and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) chaired a roundtable with Silicon Valley executives on this very point. Both events highlight what is…
Canadian Privacy Commissioner Tags Google for Medical BT In only her second month on the job, Interim Privacy Commissioner Chantal Bernier took on one of the giants of the Internet – Google. Bernier cited Google for sending targeted ads for medical conditions based on consumer searches which violates Canada’s “Privacy and Online Behavioural Advertising Guidelines”…
Analyst: “NSA Scandal Will Kill US Tech Industry” In September we reported about some of the initial economic fallout from the NSA surveillance scandal and that impact is only growing more severe. At that time, Forrester had estimated the scandal could cost US cloud service providers $180 billion or a 25% hit to overall IT service…
Gmail Class Action Survives Motion to Dismiss. Is Yahoo Next? A class action lawsuit challenging Gmail’s practice of scanning email for purposes of serving targeted advertisements survived Google’s attempt to dismiss The development has led some to speculate that Yahoo! might bee the next target. Excerpts from the Judge Kohs opinion along with…
It has been five months since Edward Snowden and NSA operations such as PRISM first splashed across the front pages worldwide. During this period, the scope of the scandal has only grown through nearly weekly revelations of further NSA transgressions. While the “golden rule” of scandal management is prompt and full disclosure, the NSA scandal…
Google-Microsoft FISA Petitions As the NSA PRISM controversy broke, Google and Microsoft filed petitions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court challenging gag orders that prevented it from disclosing the nature of information requested of it and supplied to the NSA. Around this time, both companies were signatories to a letter (see below) by…
FTC Strengthens Kids’ Privacy, Gives Parents Greater Control Over Their Information By Amending Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule Rule Being Modified to Keep Up with Changing Technology The Federal Trade Commission adopted final amendments to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule that strengthen kids’ privacy protections and give parents greater control over the personal information…
Phil Corwin, Counsel to the Internet Commerce Association, returns to CLBR to discuss the controversy over the upcoming 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications organized by the International Telecommunications Union. WHAT: International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-2012) WHEN: December 3 – 14, 2012 WHERE: Dubai, UAE WHAT’S AT ISSUE:From the New…
Australia Abandons Net Censorship Plans; Google Blocked in China Australia, which surprisingly has a checkered history in terms of internet censorship, has abandoned a plan to filter all internet content. Instead, the government is working with Australian ISPs to block 1,400 child abuse websites on INTERPOL’s “worst of” list. When Australia initially announced the filtering program,…
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