On Friday, May 9 the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a white paper stating that under its interpretation of the Stored Communications Act (SCA), 18 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq., communications companies are permitted to disclose “non-content information to the government” as long as that information is in its “aggregate form.” The lynchpin of the DOJ’s […]
Privacy
Google Must Scrub its Search Engine of Individual’s Personal Data, Court Rules
The European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) ruled today that Google may be compelled to remove search listings of web pages containing information about individuals. Mario Costeja Gonzalez, a Spanish national, complained in 2010 to Spain’s data protection authority (“Spanish DPA”) about the inclusion of a newspaper article in Google search results that appeared when searching his […]
American Apparel Settles FTC Charge on Falsely Claiming Compliance with Safe Harbor Privacy Framework
On May 9, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) announced that American Apparel, Inc. (“American Apparel”) agreed to settle FTC charges that American Apparel falsely claimed it was compliant with the U.S.-European Union Safe Harbor (the “US-EU Safe Harbor Framework”). The FTC’s complaint alleged that American Apparel, a clothing manufacturer and retailer with more than 200 […]
U.S. Court Requires Microsoft to Produce Data Stored in Ireland Pursuant to SCA Search Warrant
On April 25, a federal magistrate judge ruled that Microsoft must disclose to U.S. federal investigators the contents of a customer’s email account stored outside of the United States. Microsoft had previously complied with portions of a search warrant seeking certain other information related to the targeted email account, but the company moved to quash the […]
Mobile Apps in the Spotlight during Upcoming GPEN International Privacy Sweep
On May 6, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (the “Commissioner”) announced mobile apps as the Global Privacy Enforcement Network’s (“GPEN’s”) focus area during the upcoming International Privacy Sweep (the “Sweep”). The Sweep will be held from May 12 to 18, 2014, involving 27 privacy enforcement authorities from around the world. The news […]