Los Angeles County supervisors seek doctor peer review records

L.A. County supervisors are seeking doctors’ peer review documents to monitor patient safety and improve their ability to settle malpractice claims. -db
Los Angeles Times
August 28, 2010
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
In a fight that could have wide-ranging implications, Los Angeles County supervisors are pushing to see confidential medical records used by county doctors to evaluate their peers to [...]

Facebook Fights Privacy Concerns

The launch of Facebook Inc.’s Places location service this week sparked new privacy concerns about the popular social network. But the company’s efforts to mollify critics before the launch stemmed some of the blowback.
August 25, 2010
The Wall Street Journal
By Geoffrey A. Fowler
Places is a feature that lets users share their physical locations with Facebook [...]

San Bernardino: Wife of ex-sheriff ruled a private citizen in libel suit

In a multimillion-dollar libel suit against Valley Wide Newspapers, the  plaintiff,the wife of a former sheriff won a ruling that she was not a public figure, athough she had a contract with San Bernardino County to provide counseling services to sheriff’s deputies. -db
San Bernardino Sun
August 23, 2010
By Mike Cruz
A Superior Court judge ruled that the [...]

Google ignites debate about privacy

Internet giant Google has sparked a fiery privacy debate this week by claiming future teenagers will need to change their names when they reach adulthood to escape embarrassing online pasts.
The Courier Mail
August 20, 2010
By Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson
In a warning experts have labelled hypocritical, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company [...]

Immigration judge blasts leak in Obama’s aunt’s asylum case

A judge who granted asylum to President Barack Obama’s African aunt ruled she deserved to stay in the United States because a federal government official leaked her status to a news organization, making her a potential target for persecution in her native Kenya.

August 18, 2010
By The [...]

Free speech: Federal judge strikes down laws restricting protests near funerals

A federal district judge ruled that two 2006 laws regulating protests near funerals violated the First Amendment. -db
Kansas City Star
Aug. 16, 2010
By Mark Morris
Missouri’s laws restricting protests near funerals are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Monday.
The ruling from Chief U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan found that two 2006 laws that sought to regulate such [...]

Los Angeles County investigates improper release of information on child death and neglect cases

Los Angeles County have asked departments to investigate inappropriate disclosure of child welfare information, but in making the request in a closed meeting, according to legal experts, have violated the California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act. -db
Los Angeles Times
August 15, 2010
By Lisa Girion
Los Angeles County officials are investigating information released regarding a [...]

Gag order eased for man fighting FBI over warrantless investigation

A president of an Internet service provider can for the first time speak about a gag on his telling anyone he had received an national security letter demanding private customer records. The ACLU argues that without a court order the FBI should at least show individual suspicion before invading the privacy and free speech rights [...]

Lawyer: Finance firms’ suit not free-speech attack

A ruling forcing a website to delay releasing the research findings of financial firms is not an attack on free speech and would not lead to widespread attacks on the media, a lawyer for financial companies that sued the website told federal appeals court judges Friday.
AP
August 9, 2010
By  [...]

Privacy: Geotagging Highlights Safety, Risks Of Mobile Technology

Location-based social networks using geotagging technology are a cool way of letting friends and family keep track of you—and as a law enforcement tool, they  can protect public safety. But when we share, do we really know who’s watching?
August 9, 2010
By Lisa Riordan Seville

In the world of social networking, Carri Bugbee [...]

Privacy Groups Call for Microsoft Investigation

Privacy groups have asked Congress to investigate Microsoft in the wake of a Wall Street Journal investigation of Web tracking and targeting.

News Broadcasting and Cable
August 6, 2010
By John Eggerton
Led by the Center for Digital Democracy, a half-dozen consumer watchdog groups sent letters to the heads of the relevant Senate and House oversight [...]

Lawmakers Seek Answers on Online Tracking

U.S. Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, are seeking information about the privacy practice of the 15 websites that the Wall Street Journal has identified as installing the most tracking technology on their visitors’ computers.
The Wall Street Journal Blog
August 5, 2010
By Julia Angwin
The representatives, [...]

BlackBerry CEO says government intrusion would hurt growth of electronic commerce

Research In Motion CEO Michael Lazaridis says government who want to ban BlackBerry smartphones says his company will not allow government access to customer data and that attempts to invade privacy of users will undermine electronic commerce. -db
Wall Street Journal
August 4, 2010
By Spencer E. Ante and Phred Dvorak
Research In Motion Ltd. co-CEO Michael [...]

Electronic Frontier Foundation sees BlackBerry ban as serious threat to privacy

The EFF staff technologist says that Middle East countries’ plans to block BlackBerry
smart phones is a renewed and scary attempt by government to limit privacy tools afforded to the public. -db
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Commentary
August 4, 2010
By Seth Schoen
Recent news reports have presented somewhat contradictory analysis of government plans in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, [...]

Police agencies admit to saving body scan images

Despite claims by the TSA that electronic body scan images “cannot be stored or recorded,” some federal police agencies are in fact saving tens of thousands of images, according to a report by CNET News.
MSNBC
August 4, 2010
By Wilson Rothman

The body scanners, increasingly found in airports, courthouses and other places where security is [...]

Facebook brings privacy settings to mobile web

Facebook, which has taken a public relations beating in the past over privacy issues, has enhanced the mobile version of its site to include access to privacy settings.
ZDNet News/Internet
August 4, 2010
By Sam Diaz
This move follows an overhaul to the settings that the company rolled out in May, largely in response to criticisms [...]

Conn. attorney general can’t make confidential records public

The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal cannot make public the confidential business documents he obtains through a subpoena, handing a victory to a Florida insurance company that sued to prevent disclosure of the information.
News
August 3, 2010
By The Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. — [...]

Appeals court says posting of personal data is free speech

A Virginia woman who protested the government’s perceived mismanagement of sensitive personal data by posting unredacted information from government documents online can continue her crusade, a federal appeals court has ruled.
The Reporters Committee from Freedom of the Press
July 30, 2010
By Cristina Abello
Betty “B.J.” Ostergren, a self-proclaimed privacy rights advocate, created a [...]

Leaked Afghan war docs could spur crackdown on info access

After the massive Afghan war data spill by Wikileaks, some veteran intelligence officers and experts are calling for a tightening of access to information and more monitoring in the spy community’s lower levels.

July 29, 2010
By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Call it the big information chill, looming across the military and intelligence communities. After [...]

FBI chief: Surveillance rules not based on race, faith

FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress yesterday that the bureau’s domestic-surveillance guidelines were being used properly and that agents were not employing them to target people for investigation on the basis of race.
July 29, 2010
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON–The FBI director’s defense of the guidelines at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing followed criticism by [...]

First Amendment Guru Floyd Abrams on the WikiLeaks Situation [VIDEO]

July 28, 2010
By Wall Street Journal
 

 
On Monday morning, we did some looking into the legal issues surrounding WikiLeaks’ decision to unveil some 92,000 previously classified documents on the public, in connection with a handful of media outlets.
The bottom line, some First Amendment experts informed us: the government certainly had the right to go after and [...]

Va. privacy advocate can publish SSNs of private, public citizens

A Virginia privacy advocate can post public records containing Social Security numbers of private citizens as well as government officials on her website, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday.
News
July 27, 2010
By The Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va.–The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with B.J. Ostergren’s claim that a 2008 state law prohibiting anyone from making [...]

Circuit won’t reopen intercepted email case

The 4th Circuit declined to reopen the case of a former colonel in the North Carolina Army National Guard, who accused his colleagues of intercepting, reading and forwarding his emails while he was deployed in Iraq.
Courthouse news
July 23, 2010
By Annie Youderian
The federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., held that Col. Frederick Aikens failed to establish [...]

States want a closer look at Google’s street view data gathering

All Things Digital
July 21, 2010
By John Murrell
A multistate inquiry into what Google says was the inadvertent gathering of Wi-Fi data by its Street View cars now has 37 attorneys general on board and some specific questions. Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal, who is spearheading the effort, sent a letter to the company todayasking who inserted the data collection [...]

New federal online identity plan raises privacy and free speech concerns

The White House recently released a draft of a troubling plan titled  ”National Strategy for Trusted Identities Cyberspace” (NSTIC).
Commentary/ Electronic Frontier Foundation
July 21, 2010
By  Lee Tien and Seth Schoen
The White House recently released a draft of a troubling plan titled “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace” (NSTIC). In previous iterations, the project was known as [...]

High court privacy ruling finds way into sunshine law case

Last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on the privacy of petition signers in state ballot initiatives is already being invoked in the broader context of defending state sunshine and open meeting laws.
The National Law Journal
July 15, 2010
By Tony Mauro
The state of Texas cited the decision Doe v. Reed (pdf) earlier this week in the latest chapter [...]

Supreme Court rules names on anti-gay petition can be made public

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for public disclosure of names on a petition to overturn a gay rights law in Washington state. Those for disclosure say it is an important victory for the public’s right to check signatures and to discover who are supporting particular political stances. -db

SeattlePI.com
June 24, 2010
By Chris Grygiel
The Supreme Court ruled [...]

Supreme Court ruling on employer montoring of e-mail messages leaves intact right of public’s right to know

While ruling that  an Ontario police department armed with a legitimate purpose had the right to inspect an officer’s text messages, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the pubic’s right to know under the California Public Records Act. The Court said that police officers should realize their writings may be subject to public viewing. -db

Washington Post [...]

California court unseals records in murder of eight-year-old

Weighing the family’s right to privacy to the public’s right to know, a Superior Court judge released most of the records sought by the media pertaining to last year’s murder of an eight-year-old girl. The judge withheld autopsy photos. -db

Tracy Press
Jun 14, 2010
By Jaclyn Hirsch

STOCKTON, Calif.  — Judge Linda Lofthus decided this afternoon to unseal [...]

First Amendment: State attorneys general sign ‘friend of court’ brief in Marine funeral suit

Nearly every state in the union is backing the family of a Marine in a Supreme Court case pitting the rights of the Westboro Baptist Church to picket their son’s funeral against the family’s right to privacy. -db
ABC News
May 31, 2010
By Devin Dwyer
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia are backing [...]

First Amendment: State attorneys general sign ‘friend of court’ brief in Marine funeral case

Nearly every state in the union is backing the family of a Marine in a Supreme Court case pitting the rights of the Westboro Baptist Church to picket their son’s funeral against the family’s right to privacy. -db
ABC News
May 31, 2010
By Devin Dwyer

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia are backing the [...]

Public interest groups ask U.S. Supreme Court to overturn ruling they claim detrimental to Freedom of Information Act

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press joined other public interest groups in filing a brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn a Third Circuit opinion that would extend privacy rights to corporations, potentially limiting investigations into such disasters as the West Virginia mining deaths and the gulf oil spill. -db

Reporters Committee for Freedom [...]

Pennsylvania: Federal judge orders school to allow students and parents to see Webcam spy photos

While authorities are investigating whether a school district committed any crimes in sying on students through school-issued Macbooks, a federal judge ordered the Lower Merion School District to allow students and parents to view the screenshots taken in their homes. -db

Wired
May 17, 2010
By David Kravets
Suburban Philadelphia parents and their high school-age children soon will [...]

Push begins in Congress to update Internet and electronic media privacy law

A House of Representatives subcommittee began hearings on updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act enacted in 1986 before the Internet existed. -db

American Civil Liberties Union
Press Release
May 5, 2010
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties held a hearing today on updating the out-of-date Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). [...]

First Amendment privacy rights lose in federal appeals court

The recording industry won a round in federal court when the court ruled that the industry had the right to know the identities of alleged peer-to-peer copyright violators. -db

Wired
April 30,2010
By David Kravets

A federal appeals court is blessing the legal process by which the recording industry and other content owners unmask the identities of alleged [...]

Same-sex marriage referendum: Supreme Court justices voice skepticism about keeping signatures private

In hearing arguments about keeping referendum signatures private in a referendum to repeal Washington’s domestic partnership law, several justices appeared unsympathetic to arguments of the attorney opposing making the signatures public. -db

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
April 28, 2010
By Mara Zimmerman

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared skeptical of the argument that signatures on [...]

Federal prosecutors complain that judge is blocking criminal probe of school webcam spying

A federal district judge has ordered that evidence be restricted to those connected to a civil lawsuit charging invasion of privacy when a school district spied on students using school-issued webcams. Federal prosecutors has asked the judge to modify the order so they can conduct a criminal investigation of the district. -db
Wired
April 26, [...]

Washington jury finds for high school newspaper in privacy case over oral sex practices

A jury ruled 10-2 that there was a degree of newsworthiness in a news story on oral sex practices in a high school so that there was no violation of students’ privacy. -db

Student Press Law Center
April 22, 2010
By Katie Maloney
WASHINGTON — A Pierce County jury found in favor of the Puyallup School District on Wednesday, [...]

Free student press: Case goes to jury on parents’ claim students harmed by quotes on sexual histories

A case heard in a Washington state court may hinge on whether school officials and teachers should exercise more control over the content of student newspapers. Washington law discourages authorities from interfering with the lawful content in student newspapers. -db

Student Press Law Center
April 21, 2010
By Mike Hiestand
WASHINGTON — “This case is not about whether you [...]

Spying scandal: Suburban Philadelphia school district took thousands of webcam images of students

According to court filings, the Lower Merion School District used district-issued Macbooks to spy on its students, taking thousands of webcam images of students without their knowledge. -db
Wired
April 16, 2010
By David Kravets
A webcam spying scandal at a suburban Philadelphia school district is broadening, with lawyers claiming the district secretly snapped thousands of webcam images of [...]

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