How many of us actually read social media terms of use? Be wary: you allow public information to be accessible over public search engines. When you tweet you: grant Twitter a licence to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute content in any manner or method. Twitter may sublicense these rights … Continue reading
If your social media page permits a user to purchase goods or services from you, a December 20, 2013 ruling from the Northern District of California may be of interest. The case involves minors using their parents’ credit cards without authorization (in 2011) in order to purchase several hundred dollars’ worth of Facebook Credits.I.B. v. … Continue reading
Yesterday’s hilarious Facebook photo can easily become today’s biggest regret. Hence, the explosive rise of the new photo-sharing app, Snapchat. Snapchat allows users to create “Snaps,” user photos with built-in self-destruct timers. Users can decide how long the recipients can view the photos after which time they are permanently deleted from both the recipient’s device … Continue reading
On July 10, 2013, U.S. Representative John Duncan (R-Tenn.) and co-sponsor Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) introduced H.R. 2645, the “Forbidding Advertisement Through Child Exploitation Act of 2013.” The stated purpose of this short bill is to “prohibit providers of social media services from using self-images uploaded by minors for commercial purposes.” Under the bill, a “social … Continue reading
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”) prohibits interception of “any wire, oral, or electronic communication.” 18 U.S.C. § 2511. Electronic communication is defined as “any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photo-electronic or photo-optical system.” 18 U.S.C. … Continue reading
Congress woman Zoe Lofgren recently introduced a bill intending to align the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 with the current state of technology, especially with respect to cloud computing. The Online Communications and Geolocation Protection Act, backed by tech companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Twitter, eBay and Amazon, intends to clarify and apply … Continue reading
Should companies with social media pages be concerned with dissemination of their information to other entities, such as current or potential competitors? Some privacy groups think so, and warn that a user of popular social media site Facebook may well find his/her/its private data shared with an unexpected entity. In Facebook, for example, this newly … Continue reading
When can a party to a lawsuit get access to another party’s Facebook-posted materials for discovery purposes without violating privacy rights? On November 14, 2012, New York’s Appellate Division ruled on that question in an auto accident/personal injury matter involving two plaintiffs. See Richards v. Hertz Corp., No. 2011-02807 (N.Y. App. Div. Nov. 14, 2012. … Continue reading