World Social Media Legal News Roundup

Newsmakers Q&A | Law slow to address workers’ social-media privacy
Columbus Dispatch

Colorado shooting: Public calls on Christian Bale to swoop in
Los Angeles Times

July 21, 2012, 12:04 p.m.. People are calling upon the caped crusader in the wake of the Colorado theater shooting with the 21st century bat signal: social media.

Afghan social media war steps up with new campaign
Reuters UK

And with the government mulling a media law to tighten its grip over the fledgling but lively Afghan press corps, Nai hoped social media could help safeguard political and social freedoms, as occurred during the wave of uprisings across the Middle East.

A social media win on merger
Philadelphia Inquirer

It’s a bracing lesson, on a local stage, in the power of social media to create community around an issue and ratchet up pressure on key players – in this case, the members of the Abington board and its president and CEO, Laurence Merlis. “It’s amazing to me just how fast word spread,” …. A community-conscious and activist community, with a high concentration of concerned, committed people who work in industries such as law, medicine, public relations, and journalism.

Valley reacts via social media regarding Colorado shooting
KGBT-TV

Once new information began streaming in about the shooting, over 100 viewers began responding to the Action 4 News Facebook page and Twitter feed. As the day progressed, over 500 comments came into valleycentral.com andAction 4 social media

Media Wise Parents to the rescue
Windsor This Week
Media Wise Parents helps parents, educators and churches become more aware with social media and the internet. Tweet · Bookmark and … It’s certainly in my background with law and marketing, it’s always something that interests me.

We Want To Hear From You: Take This Two-Minute Social Media Survey
Business Insider

This Is The Gun Used In The Colorado Shooting That Everyone Can’t Believe Is Actually Legal

In Focus: Social Media & Law Enforcement

Busted! Police Turn to Social Media to Fight Crime
CNBC.com (blog)

Law enforcement is taking to social media because criminals are changing their behavior and using social media to facilitate crime. In response, law enforcement officials are using it to track down criminals and as a predictive policing tool, said Haywood.

Role of Social Media in Law Enforcement Significant and Growing
Business Wire (press release)

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–LexisNexis® Risk Solutions today announced the results of a comprehensive survey focused on the impact of social media on law enforcement in criminal investigations.

Police Make Wide Use Of Social Tools
InformationWeek (blog)

The survey, of more than 1200 law enforcement professionals with federal, state, and local agencies, found that 83% of the respondents are using social media, particularly Facebook and YouTube, to further their investigations.

Crime Busters Embrace Social Media
BusinessNewsDaily

It’s not just prospective customers, partners or employers who may be scanning the social media landscape to glean information about you and your organization. The long arm of the law has joined the party as well, a new survey shows.

How Law Enforcement Is Using Social Media (Infographic)
Law enforcement officials are using social media to solve crimes and will continue to do so in greater numbers. In an online survey conducted by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, four out of five law enforcement officials used social media.

Social Media Legal News Roundup

Into the data jungle – in association with Huron Legal
The Lawyer
Technological developments such as cloud computing, social networking and mobile apps mean EU law is no longer fit for purpose. The EU claims current laws often conflict and cost businesses a total of nearly £2bn a year.

Saudi Arabia considers law against insulting Islam
Bangladesh News 24 hours
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, July 16 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) – Saudi Arabia is studying new regulations to criminalise insulting Islam, including in social media, and the law could carry heavy penalties, a Saudi paper said on Sunday.

Mind the missteps in online job dance
Lawyers Weekly
With some background check firms specializing in social media searches (U.S.-based Social Intelligence Corp. for one), how do third-party recruiters use social media when screening or finding clients for law firms in Canada?

Saudi Arabia looking to criminalize Islam insults on social media
Bikya Masr
DUBAI: The Saudi Arabia government is looking to ensure users on social media networking sites do not insult Islam or the Prophet Mohamed, al-Watan newspaper reported on Sunday, citing officials who said a new law could bring “heavy” penalties.

Watching the detectives: the case for restricting access to your social media data
Delimiter
That debate tells us something about how Australians and the media conceptualise privacy and business-government relationships in a world where mobile phones and social network services such as Facebook are ubiquitous.

10 Tactics for Integrating Photographs into Content Marketing
Business 2 Community
Acquire digital rights for images. Remember when using images, especially photographs, your legal team is your best friend. Ensure that you’ve got the right to use the photos by incorporating outtakes and additional shots for social media.

Syracuse Neighborhood Watch plans to increase social media outreach
CNYcentral.com
New program coordinator plans more email, social media contact. … CNY Biz Central – Legal. Helpful advice about finding the right attorney for your legal needs. CNY Biz Central. Get information from our team.

Reasonable Expectations of Privacy in the Digital Age
Mondaq News Alerts (registration)
In this digital age of smart phones, global positioning systems, cloud computing, and social networking, determining what constitutes private information and what lengths our legal system will go to protect it is increasingly challenging.

Sale Of Digg Reminder Of Potential Risks To Facebook And Other Social Media …
Seeking Alpha
In 2011, social media watchers may recall reading in Bloomberg that Myspace, which had been purchased by News Corporation (NWS) for $580 million in 2005 had reportedly been sold for just $35 million to private investors, including Justin Timberlake. In …

Your Social Media Tweeting & Posting Legal Rights. TV … – YouTube
Find out how legally liable you are for your Twitter Tweets and Facebook postings.

Learn more about me here: www.ecommerceattorney.com and follow me here

Privacy Legal News Roundup

Trying to beat the heat? Peruse these top Privacy stories from around the web.

The Internet needs its own ‘declaration of independence’
Christian Science Monitor
A new ‘Declaration of Internet Freedom’ should spark a much-needed discussion about online rights and privacy.

Homeowners Bill of Rights passes in California
Examiner.com
According to Assembly Speaker John Perez (D-Los Angeles), the key provisions of the Homeowners Bill of Rights legislation include: “a requirement that a person or team of persons employed by a lender to be a single point of contact for the homeowner.

Facebook Joins California Mobile App Privacy Program
InformationWeek
California launched its mobile app privacy program in February 2012, just one day before the White House announced its proposed Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. From the outset, the state announced that the six companies with the biggest mobile app …

How California’s New Homeowners’ Bill Of Rights Protects Against Wrongful Foreclosures.
ThinkProgress
The “Homeowners’ Bill of Rights,” pushed by state Attorney General Kamala Harris (D), aims to extend to the state level many of the protections ensured by the mortgage fraud settlement between six big banks and the federal government and states.

Descendants of the signers to read the Declaration of Independence on July 4
American Civil Liberties Union News and Information (blog)
“My professional career has been dedicated to advancing people’s rights and liberties as outlined in the Declaration and in the Constitution and its Bill of Rights,” said Murphy, the Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington …

Independence Day: Ghosts of SCOTUS on the fundamental right to privacy
Network World
While the Constitution may not specifically state the right to privacy, the Bill of Rights most assuredly protects aspects of privacy. In 1965, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on the landmark case, Griswold v. Connecticut, and the Justices referenced the …

Cash-Strapped Consumer And Privacy Groups Petition Commerce Dept For Better Participation.
techPresident
That’s the department that’s organizing the workshops that are meant to convene all U.S. stakeholders to develop a code of conduct to implement the administration’s Privacy Bill of Rights. The first workshop is taking place inside the Beltway on July …

Why Kansas City is getting Internet 100 times faster than everyone else
Alaska Dispatch
Yesterday, an impressive coalition of companies and Internet and human rights activists endorsed a Declaration of Internet Freedom that aims to start a discussion about the basic principles that should underlie online access. Among the 20000 groups or …

Celebrate your independence: You have rights as a taxpayer
Savannah Morning News
Years after the War the Bill of Rights was drafted and 10 amendments were added to our Constitution. … Privacy and confidentiality: The IRS may not discuss any of the facts and information given to them with anyone except in accordance with the law.

Do you have information or data privacy and security concerns? Contact David Adler at Leavens, Strand, Glover & Adler for a free consultation.

Managing Compliance Obligations For Electronic Communications

Financial Services is one of the most heavily regulated industries. As electronic communications devices and platforms proliferate, message retention and oversight is a top priority for many compliance officers. A recent survey of compliance professionals in the financial services industry identified the following key issues:

    Firms are working smarter, not harder to manage the growing compliance burden.

As the types of messages that Financial services firms are required to monitor and store continue to increase, firms are re-evaluating and updating supervision and retention procedures. Key areas of compliance concerns are

    New regulations
    New communications channels (e.g. social media, text messaging)
    New communications devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets)
    Increased scrutiny/enforcement by regulators
    Inefficiencies of the supervision process
    Mobile devices and communications are emerging as a top concern.

Like many other industries, Financial Services firms are facing the “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) challenge: growing use of smartphones and tablets as well as adoption of mobile-specific communications like text messaging. This presents a challenge to conventional compliance practices which has not gone unnoticed by regulators. Last year, FINRA issued Regulatory Notice 11-39, stating that firms are required to retain, retrieve and supervise business communications regardless of whether they are conducted from a work-issued device or a personal device. This presents a challenge to companies that must separate business and personal communications in order to ensure regulatory compliance.

    Social Media and other online communication channels present new concerns.

Use of Social Media is on the rise in the Financial Services industry. However, policies and procedures for supervision and retention lag behind the pace of adoption. In terms of the most requested message types during examination! Email was first, followed by Website pages (including
RSS feeds, blogs, wikis) with Bloomberg or Reuters messages and instant messages ( tied for third place.

Conclusion

While regulatory examiners are increasing their oversight and moving from a check-the-box approach to compliance to scrutiny of the messages themselves, financial services firms are getting more savvy about their approach to compliance. In addition, as the opportunities for new types and channels of electronic communications increase, so too are the archiving and supervision technologies allowing firms use of these emerging communication tools with a greater sense of security.

World Social Media Legal News Roundup

Law professor says social media can pose legal problems in Courtroom
Winnipeg Free Press
SASKATOON – The dean of law at the University of Saskatchewan says using social media can have negative consequences in the Courtroom – Business – Winnipeg Free Press.

Eight Ways Your Employee Social-Media Policy May Violate Federal law
AdAge.com (blog)
All employees have certain rights under federal law that social-media policies can’t restrict.

New Law to Force Identification of Trolls Set to be Unveiled
Technorati
Home / Social Media / Articles / New Law to Force Identification of Troll. … is behind the attacks on them online without having to resort to expensive legal action.

A blue wave of change Cleveland County law enforcers join move toward social media alerts
Norman Transcript
Lauri Stevens, a social media strategist at LAwS Communications, a Boston-area company, said law enforcement agencies nationwide are beginning to embrace social media.

Social media helped, hurt in hunt for suspect in triple shooting
Washington Post
Social media at times was a help, other times a hindrance in the search and eventual arrest of a suspect in the triple fatal shooting at an Alabama apartment complex.

Use social media, but use it responsibly, UAE conference hears
gulfnews.com
He said, “We do not monitor social media networks. People have the freedom to speak within the legal framework. There is no law specifically for twitter, but …

Police: Street gangs embrace social media, too
Kansas.com
Beard gave a presentation on gangs, the Internet and social media at last week’s Midwest Law Enforcement Conference on Gangs and Drugs, held in Wichita.

And…don’t forget to check out my presentation on the Law & Social Data panel at #TechWeek Chicago 2012.

The past few years have witnessed an explosion of legal and regulatory activity involving social and other new media. This session will examine several key areas, including copyright, trademark and related intellectual property concerns; defamation, obscenity and related liability; false advertising and marketing restrictions; gaming; data privacy issues presented by social media; and impacts of social media on employees and the workplace. Attendees will learn how to identify legal risks and issues before they become full-scale emergencies and how to develop appropriate policies and guidelines covering social media activity.

If you can’t make it, check out the Slideshare presentation here.

Mobile Privacy Standards Coming: U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Agency

Mobile carriers, app developers, and other technology stakeholders will meet with the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Agency on July 12 to discuss privacy standards for mobile use. The focus of the discussion will be the privacy practices of mobile apps and their transparency.

Applications will be the main focus on July 12 when enforcement begins. The initial series of meetings will decide on rights, obligations and enforcement of online and mobile device security under President Obama’s virtual “Privacy Bill of Rights”.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Communications and Telecommunication Administration (NTIA) has made the decision that it is now time to put the president’s Privacy Bill of Rights into effect. In order to get started, they have sent an invitation to all of the “privacy stakeholders” in order to “generate robust input” in the creation of the very first transparency code of conduct for consumer data collection and use.

The White House and Congress hopes that this discussion will eventually lead to a privacy bill of rights. July’s meeting will be webcast for the public.

Social Media & The Law: Recent Developments in Privacy, Security & Media

Statute Puts Online Libraries and Other Service Providers at Risk
Kansas City infoZine

A New Washington State Law Intends to Make Online Service Providers Criminally Liable For Online Postings. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is representing the Internet Archive in order to block the enforcement of SB 6251, a law aimed at combating advertisements for underage sex workers but with vague and overbroad language that is squarely in conflict with federal law.

NLRB General Counsel Issues Further Guidance on Social Media
National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) is closely scrutinizing employer social media policies.

Legal issues in the media
Social Media Legal, Regulatory & Compliance: Risks & Issues Social Media Slideshare presentation.

Putting the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights into Practice
Providing transparency in how consumer data is handled by mobile applications – this is the first topic for the National Telecommunications and Information…

US lawmakers propose digital bill of rights to safeguard privacy …
Two US lawmakers have proposed a digital bill of rights to safeguard consumer privacy rights and ensure internet freedom.

Stakeholders to Discuss Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will convene stakeholders July 12, 2012 in Washington, DC to develop a privacy code of conduct.

David M. Adler Speaking on Law & Social Data Panel at Chicago TechWeek 2012

Chicago is a new kind of technology hub, and the Techweek Conference is a new type of technology conference.

The Techweek 2012 Conference showcases the technology renaissance evolving in Chicago and the midwest. June 22-26, 2012

Law & Social Data
The past few years have witnessed an explosion of legal and regulatory activity involving social and other new media. This session will examine several key areas, including copyright, trademark and related intellectual property concerns; defamation, obscenity and related liability; false advertising and marketing restrictions; gaming; data privacy issues presented by social media; and impacts of social media on employees and the workplace. Attendees will learn how to identify legal risks and issues before they become full-scale emergencies and how to develop appropriate policies and guidelines covering social media activity.

Sunday June 24, 2012 3:00pm – 3:45pm @ 3 – 8 A/B (222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL)

Social Media & The Law: Weekly Recap June 15, 2012

Here are some of the Social Media Legal headlines from around the world this week.

Pinterest hires Google’s former top lawyer
GMA News

Pinterest remains a hot social media property, registering major growth in recent months. Business Insider said investors just gave it another $50 million at a $1.5-billion valuation, and employees are leaving other Silicon Valley firms to join.

In the Arab World, Social Media Has Fast Developed into a Medium for the Masses
Knowledge@Wharton

A surprising outcome from a recent survey, that social media has an equalizing factor among men and women. They’ve got the same reaction to issues, for instance related to women.

Mobile App Lets You Document and Report Police Stop-and-Frisk Abuse
Mashable

The New York Civil Liberties Union is arming city residents and visitors with an app called Stop and Frisk Watch that records video, audio and GPS data.

FBI Highlights Social Media Risks

BllombergBNA

Last year, some users saw on their Facebook walls enticing posts offering video of Osama bin Laden’s capture. Those that clicked on the link and followed the provided directions ended up giving hackers access to their Facebook accounts; they were victims of a social media scam.