Carolina Alonso and Nikki Edmunds of BakerHostetler write: What’s Trending? (Privacy a la Mode) Notable fashion brands have been engaging in a “trial period” of new technologies as privacy laws and privacy enforcement are trending – for example, exploring integrating branding into digital assets in video games, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology,…
Category: U.S.
San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors Grants Police More Surveillance Powers
Matthew Guariglia writes: In a 4-7 vote, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed a 15-month pilot program granting the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) more live surveillance powers. This was despite the objections of a diverse coalition of community groups and civil rights organizations, residents, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and even members of…
Ancestry.com wins class action over its use of yearbook photos
John O’Brien reports: A federal judge has thrown out a class action lawsuit against Ancestry.com before lawyers could get it to trial. Chicago’s Judge Virginia Kendall on Sept. 16 granted summary judgment to the company, which was accused of violating the Illinois Right of Publicity Act when it published old yearbook photos without permission to…
Lawsuit: SMUD and Sacramento Police Violate State Law and Utility Customers’ Privacy by Sharing Data Without a Warrant
From EFF: The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) searches entire zip codes’ worth of people’s private data and discloses it to police without a warrant or any suspicion of wrongdoing, according to a privacy lawsuit filed Wednesday in Sacramento County Superior Court. SMUD’s bulk disclosure of customer utility data turns its entire customer base into potential leads…