The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (“ECPA”) prohibits disclosure of stored communications without a court order. This includes instant messages, emails, and communications on Facebook. The issues that can arise from such a standard came to light in 2005, when Loren Williams died in a motorcycle accident in Arizona,…
The Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) requires public businesses to provide equal access to their venues for persons with disabilities. Under Subchapter III of the ADA, such public establishments include, among others, restaurants, movie theaters, stores, and places of education. Now, the increases in businesses that operate exclusively online, without…
The possibility of identity theft is a growing concern. However, banks, credit card companies, and various other institutions that house private information regularly take steps to protect customers’ identities. Nonetheless, a different type of identity theft continues to thrive. Online impersonation is a quick and easy form of identity theft…
Bullying has plagued people of all ages for many generations. Now, with the expansion of the Internet, bullies are able to threaten and harass people at an even greater level through cyberbullying. Stopbullying.gov, a government supported website aimed at spreading awareness, defines cyberbullying as any bullying that involves electronic technology…
Cloud computing offers a revolutionary new way to conduct business over the Internet. This service is a form of cyber-outsourcing where virtual servers provide certain services or applications for consumers online. Cloud computing vendors include, IBM SmartCloud, Cisco Cloud Computing, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (aka Amazon EC2), and various smaller…
Former CIA Director David Petraeus from his position after the FBI looked through Petraeus’ private Gmail account and discovered that he was having an extramarital affair. These events have brought to light the fragile state of individual privacy on the Internet, particularly in relation to individual email accounts. According to…
Facebook is struggling to decide how to handle its pictures. While consumer companies urge Facebook to profit from its face recognition technology, international regulators insist that user identities remain protected. According to a New York Times article entitled, Facebook Can ID Face, But Using Them Grows Tricky, Facebook agreed to…
The content of an online search result for an individual generates a profile of the individual. Such content paints a picture for potential employers and colleagues, and the information may not be ideal. Therefore, in order to protect your online reputation and your overall image, it is important to take…
The technological advancements and the ever-expansive world of cyberspace are in a perpetual state of conflict with individual privacy concerns. For example, a recent research project by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology demonstrates that independent component analysis allows companies to track changes in pulse by the subsequent change in skin…
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) may be preparing to file an antitrust suit against Google for abusing its dominance as an Internet search engine to stifle competition from other search engines and arbitrarily increase advertisement costs. The Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1-7, which governs American antitrust law, makes…