Juan Carlos Perez reports: The U.S. Department of Justice has come out against the proposed agreement to settle copyright lawsuits that authors and major publishers filed against Google over the search company’s book search program. “This Court should reject the Proposed Settlement in its current form and encourage the parties to continue negotiations,” reads a…
The 2008-2009 Annual Report to Parliament on the Privacy Act
From the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: The Privacy Act came into effect On July 1, 1983. This Act imposes obligations on federal government departments and agencies to respect the privacy rights of individuals by limiting the collection, use and disclosure of personal information. The Act also gives individuals the right of access…
Mass. court on GPS surveillance in criminal cases
Stephanie Vosk reports: Police are allowed to secretly place Global Positioning System devices inside the cars of suspects they want to monitor — as long as they have a warrant to do so, the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday. The decision stems from a case involving Harwich resident Everett Connolly, who was convicted of…
Media blasted for humiliating the innocent
Dario Milo and Greg Palmer are Webber Wentzel in Johannesburg. The have a commentary on the expectation of privacy and the media: Caster Semenya, the newly crowned 800m world champion, entered the international spotlight when an Australian newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, sensationally claimed that testing by sports administrators had shown she was a hermaphrodite. The…