Privacy ← Innovation Law Blog ← Page 2

The Legality of Online Anonymity: Two Cases

Aug

2011

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice recently released two decisions, one last month and one last week, on the issue of online anonymity, tackling that delicate balance between competing privacy interests, the public interest of promoting justice by facilitating the prosecution of defamation and the underlying values of freedom of expression.

Dropbox Accounts Accidentally Open to All for 4 Hours

Giselle Chin

Jun

2011

A code update Monday afternoon introduced a bug which made Dropbox accounts password-free, meaning anyone could have logged into anyone else’s account with only the email address, for about four hours. The breach occurred between 1:54pm and 5:41pm Pacific time and was fixed at 5:46pm. According to Dropbox’s blog post, however, only less than one percent of users logged in during that ...

LawTech Camp a success

Susan Deefholts

Jun

2011

On Saturday, June 18, 2011 the University of Toronto Faculty of law was host to an innovatively structured gathering featuring a series of sessions and discussions on issues relating to law and technology. Based on the idea of BarCamp–user generated gatherings, or “unconferences”–the sessions arose from the suggestions and proposed discussion topics put forward by ...

Super-injunctions: Twitter Sued by Footballer (UK) 1

Giselle Chin

May

2011

In what may be the first lawsuit against the microblogging site, an English footballer is suing Twitter and its users after a/some Tweeter(s) purported to reveal the name of a player who allegedly had an affair with a model. The lawsuit lists the defendants as “Twitter Inc and persons unknown” according to reports. It seems ...

Gag-Order Issued for Facebook and Twitter

Giselle Chin

May

2011

In an attempt to prevent the spreading of sensitive information, a judge in Britain has banned Twitter and Facebook users, among others, from revealing details about a brain-damaged woman involved in a recent UK case. The order was issued in the Court of Protection regarding the case of a mother looking to withdraw life support from her brain damaged ...

Google & Apple’s Location v. Privacy Congress Hearing

Giselle Chin

May

2011

Google and Apple appeared before the US’ Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law today to explain, and hopefully placate, privacy concerns over how these two these two global corporations track and use their customers’ location data. The hearing was called in response to last month’s disclosure that Apple’s iPhones collected location data, even when ...

Potential Fines for Massive Data Breaches

Giselle Chin

May

2011

Following Sony’s recent, and nigh global, data security issues and Canada’s privacy watchdog’s call to increase penalties on corporations if they do not protect personal information of their customers, Industry Minister Tony Clement has responded with a “Maybe”. The minister made a statement to Postmedia News on Friday that ”I have not closed the door to ...

Class Action Against Sony for Data Breach

Giselle Chin

May

2011

A class action has been filed in Ontario on behalf of approximately one million Canadian PlayStation and Qriocity users against Sony Corporation. The proposed lawsuit comes on the heels of what has become a string of data breaches and crumbling trust in the multinational corporation’s data security systems. Sony Corp’s announced in April that hackers ...

US “Privacy Bill of Rights” Proposal 2

Catherine Marchant

Mar

2011

The Federal Trade Commission, consumer advocates, and some legislators have been considering online privacy for years, but the issue has been increasingly in the forefront. The FTC released a “Do Not Track” Proposal in December, and several media sources have focused on the issue recently. The Wall Street Journal ran a series last summer entitled ...

The Private market in online privacy services and the emergence of data as an asset class

Adam Friedlan

Mar

2011

One of the most common concerns arising out of the use of the internet is privacy. The use and interaction with online materials provides opportunities for marketers to surreptitiously collect data and sell it to advertisers looking to target certain consumer groups.