Balough
January 24, 2014
A blogger has the same First Amendment rights as a traditional journalist and to prove defamation for a post, a plaintiff must show some degree of negligence by the blogger, the Ninth Circuit found. The case involved one of several blog posts by Crystal Cox. That post accused the plaintiffs, who were trustees in a […]
Balough
January 9, 2014
The government’s massive phone metadata gather program is not an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, a New York District Court judge ruled, thus creating a conflict with a Washington, D.C. District Court judge who found the program did violate a person’s right of privacy. In the order, the New York judge disagreed with his Washington, D.C. […]
Balough
December 27, 2013
The NSA’s massive collection of phone data is likely an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment because it violates an individual’s expectation of privacy, a federal judge found. The ruling granted a request by two plaintiffs to enjoin the government through the National Security Agency from collecting their phone records, including metadata. However, the judge […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
Today’s cars are computers on wheels and are subject to hacking and infection by malware. The legal implications of this technical vulnerability have yet to be adequately addressed, according to the attorneys at Balough Law Offices, LLC. Today’s cars are controlled by complex computer systems, which include millions of lines of code connected by internal networks. […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
The legal issues created by allowing employees to bring their own devices to the office and connect to the network were examined by Richard C. Balough at the Southeastern Business Law Institute 2013. Mr. Balough explained that while over 66 percent of businesses allow employees to bring their own devices to the workplace and connect […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
Some franchisees of Aaron’s, Inc., the rent-to-own retailer, leased computers with programs that spied on their customers with the franchisor’s knowledge and assistance. Aaron’s, Inc. agreed to a consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission acknowledging that it played a direct and vital role in surreptitiously tracking customers, mining personal information, and even taking pictures […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
The use at a seminar on internet safety of a picture of a 17-year-old bikini-clad student taken from her Facebook page by a school district technology director did not violate the student’s right to privacy under federal law, a Georgia District court ruled. The school district’s director of technology services pulled the student’s image from […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
Those insurance company apps that track an individual’s driving habits in exchange for lower rates also can determine the car’s physical location even without global positioning capabilities, a new study finds. Some car insurance companies offer discounts if the driver allows a data collection device to be plugged into the on-board diagnostic port of the […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
In a win for privacy rights and a setback for Google, the Ninth Circuit agreed that unencrypted Wi-Fi is protected from outside snooping under the federal Wiretap Act. When Google sent vehicles out to take pictures for its Street View search feature, the vehicles not only captured the street images but also captured data from […]
Balough
December 23, 2013
A publicly accessible website may selectively block users from using the website, and attempts by a blocked user to access the site may be a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). A federal district court ruled that Craigslist, Inc. had the right to block 3taps, Inc. from accessing the advertising site. Craigslist […]
