A blog relating to Internet legal issues by Professor John Swinson, University of Queensland
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Social Networks and Right of Publicity
An important “Right of Publicity” issue for 2013 is the use by social networks of their members' names and/or likenesses in advertising. Many social networks have broad Terms of Service which purport to allow them to exploit any content that a member posts on the networks' websites. Social networks take the position that these service terms permit them to use aspects of their members’ identities in advertisements appearing within the social networks. As social networks grow and compete for advertiser dollars, they will naturally want to allow advertisers to create the most effective ads possible. Studies have shown the persuasive potential of an online connection's recommendations (due to the apparent lack of bias), and therefore many advertisers are likely to request advertising that uses the identities of a social network's users.
Privacy for Mobile Apps
F.T.C. Suggests Guidelines on Privacy for Mobile Apps The Federal Trade Commission said the mobile industry should include a do-not-track feature in software and apps and take other steps to safeguard personal information. http://nyti.ms/X0xWcG
Does Disneyworld have privacy and copyright rights?
See also clip and NYTimes.
Google Street View Privacy Lawsuit
See Boring v. Google. Original Decision; Third Circuit decision
Why are Google Maps So Much Better
Privacy Inquiries re Google
Google Privacy Inquiries Get Little Cooperation All sorts of private Internet communications were casually scooped up as Google Street View cars photographed the world’s streets. http://nyti.ms/Kx4aE2
How to Muddy Your Tracks on the Internet
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“Companies like Google are creating these enormous databases using your personal information,” said Paul Hill, senior consultant with SystemExperts, a network security company in Sudbury, Mass. “They may have the best of intentions now, but who knows what they will look like 20 years from now, and by then it will be too late to take it all back.”
See NY Times
Privacy
Australia
General information - OAIC, Australian Privacy Foundation, Electronic Frontiers
How prevalent (and relevant) are privacy concerns in Australia? How would you pursue a privacy complaint?
Legislation - look at the Privacy Act and the National Privacy Principles. Are further reforms on the way?
Case reports - review (and be ready to discuss) some privacy decisions, whether made by the Federal Privacy Commissioner or the Australian Information Commissioner.
You should also be aware of relevant case law in this area - is there a right to privacy at common law? Will there be in the future?
International
Art 17 of ICCPR.
Contractual rights
Look at the privacy policy of at least 2 websites you frequently use. Do you agree to all the terms and conditions?
For example - Google, News
Cookies
Are cookies a privacy concern, or a part of everyday life?
Recent news
Google and more Google
Then Google maps - what have been the different responses around the world?
Facebook and also here
Week 2: The Law of Google
Have a high level look at the following parts of the Google empire:
- Ten Things We Know To Be True
- Google Products
- Google Books
- AdWords and AdWords Help
- AdSense
- New Privacy Policy (and review material linked from this page)
Reading:
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Trading Post Australia [2011] FCA 1086 (22 September 2011), currently on appeal
- Financial Times: Google Privacy Policy Gets Public Airing (2 March 2012)
- Click Fraud
- Advanced Click Fraud
Additional Reading if you have time:
- Official Google Blog
- Google's Inside Search
- 40 Changes for February 2012
- Google Watch Blog
- Prior Blog Posts Concerning Google
- Google's Guide to having your website indexed properly in Google search results
Google Goggles
Several people who have seen the glasses, but who are not allowed to speak publicly about them, said that the location information was a major feature of the glasses. Through the built-in camera on the glasses, Google will be able to stream images to its rack computers and return augmented reality information to the person wearing them. For instance, a person looking at a landmark could see detailed historical information and comments about it left by friends. ...
“In addition to privacy, it’s also going to change real-world advertising, where companies can virtually place ads over other people’s ads,” he said. “I’m really interested in seeing how the government can successfully regulate augmented reality in this sense. They are not really going to know what people are seeing behind those glasses.”
See NY Times
Online Privacy
"Online privacy doesn’t exist. It was lost years ago. And not only was it taken, we’ve all already gotten used to it. Loss of privacy is a fundamental tradeoff at the very core of social networking. Our privacy has been taken in service of the social tools we so crave and suddenly cannot live without. If not for the piracy of privacy, Facebook wouldn’t exist. Nor would Twitter. Nor even would Gmail, Foursquare, Groupon, Zynga, etc. And yet people keep fretting about losing what’s already gone...."
New Google Privacy Policy
Last Class!
Free Speech on Twitter
From the NYTimes:
SAN FRANCISCO — What began as seamy gossip about an affair between a famous British soccer player and a reality TV star has quickly become another test over how far the rights to privacy and free speech extend online, where social media operate in countries with vastly different laws.
The soccer player has been granted a so-called super-injunction, a stringent and controversial British legal measure that prevents media outlets from identifying him, reporting on the story or even from revealing the existence of the court order itself.
But tens of thousands of Internet users have flouted the injunction by revealing his name on Twitter, Facebook and online soccer forums, sites that blur the definition of the press and are virtually impossible to police.
Last week, amid growing outrage in Britain over the use of super-injunctions, the athlete obtained a court order in British High Court demanding that Twitter reveal the identities of the anonymous users who had posted the messages. A Twitter spokesman, Matt Graves, said the company could not comment on the court order or how it planned to respond.
Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, said, “It’s really going to the core of Twitter’s service and trying to balance the speech of its users and the fact that countries have different laws and norms about speech.”
Get Your Data Back
Location Tracking
Google said Friday that it collected location data from Android phones, but that it did so anonymously and with user consent. The company said it gathered the data to provide services like maps and searches for shops or restaurants near a person’s location. The company said it also used the information to estimate traffic on various roads.
“Phones know where you are, and they need to for many of the services we offer,” said Mike Nelson, a Google spokesman.
Privacy - Week 4
Office of Australian Information Commissioner - look at the Privacy Act and Privacy Principles.
What legislative changes have been proposed for Australian privacy laws?
You should also be aware of relevant case law in this area - is there a right to privacy at common law?
Privacy Foundation
International rights
Art 17 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Privacy Policies
Do you understand/agree to all of these terms?
Amazon
Disney
Cookies
Cookie Central
Google Maps
Legal responses - Australia; USA; Czech Republic; Germany. What are some other responses from around the world, particularly in relation to the Street View data collection issue?
No longer a social norm?
Solutions
TrustE
How should damages be assessed for privacy and cybersecurity breaches
Listen to this podcast where I discuss how damages should be assessed in privacy and cybersecurity lawsuits. The Lawyers Weekly Show host J...
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The United Nations intellectual property agency (WIPO) is the latest front in the US-China trade war. http://www.theage.com.au/world/sad-am...
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The issue of content regulation in China was mentioned in this blog last year . In the last few weeks, this issue has once again pushed into...
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Finally, what is called direct registration of domain names is coming to Australia. See https://www.auda.org.au/statement/australias-interne...