A few of the privacy stories this blog covered during 2010 involved web sites “outing” commenters. One of the most shocking of these stories was the Cleveland Plain Dealer case involving a sitting judge. The judge, whose daughter took responsibility for posting the comments, sued the paper. As the year draws to a close, the case has reportedly been settled:
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold and her daughter have dismissed their lawsuit against The Plain Dealer and its reporters and editors. The Saffolds reached a financial settlement with Advance Internet.
The judge and her daughter sued the Plain Dealer, then-Editor Susan Goldberg, Advance Internet and other affiliated companies in April. The Saffolds’ suit alleged the defendants had breached a website privacy policy and defamed them by publishing stories about comments posted under the “lawmiss” and “governmentwatcher” screen names on cleveland.com, the online home of the newspaper and an affiliate of Advance Internet.
Read more on Cleveland.com