April 10, 2013

DigitalLawUK News Summary 10 April 2013

Mr Zuckerberg has said before that he doesn't agree with the concept of Privacy

Mr Zuckerberg has said before that he doesn’t agree with the concept of Privacy

Will Facebook have a home for privacy? | Paris Brown: Kent youth PCC resigns after Twitter row |  Data Protection Act is not a barrier for information sharing in NHS | Privacy breach affected 1600 schools

This Friday, Android phone users have an important privacy decision to make. That is the day Facebook Home is available. Do users care if Facebook becomes the doorman to their device? Or do they want to preserve that duty for the lock-screen they know is benign? No longer just another mobile app, Home widens the area of digital life Facebook can see, collect and track. Home improves the so-called “frictionless” collection of data, which should raise questions, if not red flags. Home appears to be a better way for Facebook to gather information about the user, which certainly provides more resources for what fills Facebook’s balance sheet: serving up ads, especially in a point-in-time way. In fact, investors liked it, bidding up Facebook shares 3% the day Home was announced. Will Facebook unduly exploit these new opportunities? Will users trust them not to? Will regulators be stopping by for a check-up? Continue Reading →

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April 9, 2013

DigitalLawUK News Summary 9 April 2013

You trust your Estate Agent with all the information to buy your house, and increasingly they are actually protecting it as well.....

You trust your Estate Agent with all the information to buy your house, and increasingly they are actually protecting it as well…..

ICO Data Protection clampdown on letting and estate agents|Police investigate youth police commissioner Paris Brown’s ‘inappropriate’ tweet  | Microsoft accuses Google of pushing services to Android  | Council student social worker breaches child assessment data 

A targeted campaign by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to get property agents to register under the Data Protection Act has seen a dramatic rise in compliance across the sector. Since the ICO’s campaign began in September 2010, an additional 2,500 property agents have signed up, with 5,057 estate agents and 2,669 letting agents currently compliant. The campaign was undertaken after concerns that many property agents were unaware of their legal requirement to register.

Under the Data Protection Act (DPA), organisations processing personal information are required to register with the ICO. Failure to register is a criminal offence and could lead to a fine of up to £5,000 in a Magistrates Court, or unlimited fines in a Crown Court. That’s the offence that a Hertfordshire estate agent was today prosecuted for, after failing to register with the ICO despite being contacted on three separate occasions. Ray Butler, of Butlers Estate Agents, was convicted under section 17 of the Data Protection Act at Hertford Magistrates Court. He has been fined £300 and has also been ordered to pay £405 towards prosecution costs, as well as a £30 victims’ surcharge.

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April 8, 2013

DigitalLawUK News Summary 8 April 2013

I wouldn't leave that at TK Maxx if I were you as its likely to be destroyed.....

I wouldn’t leave that at TK Maxx if I were you as its likely to be destroyed…..

TK Maxx shred customer’s purse and blame data protection |  ’He told me he was a footballer. I wasn’t to know I was a victim’ | Youth Police Commissioner sends offensive tweets detailing binge drinking and drug taking | Facebook starts charging users up to £11 to contact celebrities | Google must defend privacy policies to 6 European agencies

“I absent-mindedly left my purse on the sales counter of our local TK Maxx while shopping in early January.When I discovered it was missing I cancelled my plastic cards. Three days later, I went around the shops to see if it had been found. An assistant at TK Maxx told me that “due to the Data Protection Act” my purse had been shredded into the store’s confidential waste. It contained items of value, including sales receipts needed to return goods, my driving licence, loyalty cards, library cards and postage stamps. The salesperson who found my purse opened it on her own and said that there was no phone contact visible. But my driving licence had my home address on. This has caused me significant distress”. The Information Commissioner’s Office, which is responsible for data protection, despairs at stories like this. Even if your purse’s contents had been within its ambit, this is a total misunderstanding of data protection. Continue Reading →

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April 4, 2013

DigitalLawUK Daily News – 4 April 2013

North Korea has had its Twitter account hacked - Another reason to launch an attack on the West?

North Korea has had its Twitter account hacked – Another reason to launch an attack on the West?

NKorea’s Twitter account hacked ; Anonymous allegedly grabs NKorea data | Texas leads in inappropriate teacher-student relationships, partly due to Facebook | Careful what you post! MP Rob Wilson in accidental porn link tweet BBC News | ICO investigating Google’s data policy | Health sector ‘a priority for data security experts’

Hackers apparently broke into at least two of North Korea’s government-run online sites Thursday, as tensions rose on the Korean Peninsula. The North’s Uriminzokkiri Twitter and Flickr accounts stopped sending out content typical of that posted by the regime in Pyongyang, such as photos of North’s leader Kim Jong Un meeting with military officials. Instead, a picture posted Thursday on the North’s Flickr site shows Kim’s face with a pig-like snout and a drawing of Mickey Mouse on his chest. Underneath, the text reads: “Threatening world peace with ICBMs and Nuclear weapons/Wasting money while his people starve to death.” Another posting says “We are Anonymous” in white letters against a black background.  Continue Reading →

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March 28, 2013

DigitalLawUK News Summary 28 March 2013

Once M15 was very "hush hush", now they even advertise on the tube!

Once M15 was very “hush hush”, now they even advertise on the tube!

MI5 and industry join forces to fight cyber crime|Contract in Facebook lawsuit is faked, says judge|Global internet slows after ‘biggest attack in history’|Online anonymity: impossible after four phone calls

CLick here to see DigitalLawUK quotes in ICSA Focus, Governance & Compliance Magazine

Cyber security experts from industry are to operate alongside the intelligence agencies for the first time in an attempt to combat the growing online threat to Britain’s firms.The government is establishing a new “fusion cell” where analysts from MI5 and GCHQ will work side by side with private sector counterparts.The cell is part of the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CISP), launched on Wednesday, to provide industry with a forum to share details of techniques used by online attackers as well as methods of countering them.At any one time there will be about 12 to 15 analysts working at the cell, based at an undisclosed location in London. ”What the fusion cell will be doing is pulling together a single, richer intelligence picture of what is going on in cyberspace and the threats attacking the UK,” one senior official said. Continue Reading →

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March 26, 2013

DigitalLawUK News Summary 26 March 2013

Depending on its settings, your smartphone is open to telling just about anyone where you are

Depending on its settings, your smartphone is open to telling just about anyone where you are

Facebook warns against ‘detailed’ EU data law |Does Mobile Phone Location Data Makes Anonymity Impossible? | Half of major UK websites breach EU data protection law and create ‘spam’, says study |Google Reader being shuttered for privacy-compliance concerns, report says |Open software group files complaint to EU against Microsoft

The world’s largest social media company, Facebook, says the EU draft data protection regulation should remain broad enough to create incentives for business to comply. “To the extent that the regulation goes off to do odd things, like defining in detail technical standards that is better left to industry players, then it would create huge disincentive for the companies to comply,” said Richard Allan, Facebook’s head of public policy of Europe, Middle East and Africa, in Brussels on Monday (25 March). The Internet giant says fixing technical details at the regulation’s outset would upset the different requirements and standards used by social networks, pharmaceutical companies or banks. The data regulation is a major overhaul of a 1995 directive and is one of the more complex legislative initiatives being pushed through at EU level. Continue Reading →

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March 25, 2013

DigitalLawUK News Summary 25 March 2013

Social Media may deter thieves as its prevalence grows. Its difficult to "disappear" into the night any more

Social Media may deter thieves as its prevalence grows. Its difficult to “disappear” into the night any more

10%  Facebook Users Abused Online according to study |Hong Kong Resident Uses Social Media To Catch iPhone Thief |Policeman reports his 13-year-old son for FRAUD after running up a £3,700 bill on his iPad |Study warns on mobile location data privacy

At least one in 10 Facebook users have received abusive or insulting messages on the site, a new study has found. According to the study, ten per cent Facebook users have experienced someone posting insulting or abusive messages on their wall, or sending insulting, abusive or threatening private messages. Sixty-one per cent people said it has happened just once or twice, while eight per cent claimed to receive ‘anti-social’ messages about once a month, and three per cent receive them a few times a month, The Telegraph reported. A further three per cent said they have received more than five such messages in the past year, found the study by Global Market Insite, a provider of technology enabled solutions for global market research.  Continue Reading →

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March 25, 2013

Google further ensnared in EU Privacy Wrangle

Google can now add Spain to France, the UK and much of the EU who have investigated its practices....

Google can now add Spain to France, the UK and much of the EU who have investigated its practices….

Google, has added to its troubles in Europe, with the Spanish Data Protection Agency (“AEPD”) its latest adversary, added to a long list of other state including the UK and France who were angered by Google’s accessing of private WiFi networks by its StreetView cars . The clash has come between the more liberal approach to freedom of expression adopted in the US, compared with the increasing  importance European countries place on privacy.

This particular case involves a man who previously had to auction his belongings due to a failure to pay social security bills . When he Googled his name an article about this appeared high up in the search results and he complained to the AEPD. The AEPD, whilst recognising that the information was lawful and true requested that Google remove the post. Google refused to remove the post and subsequently the AEPD  took them to court which ruled in their favour, however Google is now appealing this decision in the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”).

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Posted by on March 25, 2013 in Comment, News Update and tagged , , , , , , , , , .

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March 21, 2013

DigitalLawUK Daily News 21 March 2013

Turns out illegal downloads aren't taking money from One Direction after all. Was it really worth all the court cases and threatened extraditions after all?

Turns out illegal downloads aren’t taking money from One Direction after all. Was it really worth all the court cases and threatened extraditions after all?

BBC News – Music sales are not affected by web piracy, study finds | YouTube reaches a billion monthly viewers, boosted by ‘Generation C’ | EU data bill threatens transparency | Twitter turns 7: Users send over 400 million tweets per day | Google’s Eric Schmidt warns on China’s attempts to control the internet

A report published by the European Commission Joint Research Centre claims that music web piracy does not harm legitimate sales. The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies examined the online habits of 16,000 Europeans. They also found that freely streamed music provided a small boost to sales figures. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said the research was “flawed and misleading”. ”It seems that the majority of the music that is consumed illegally by the individuals in our sample would not have been purchased if illegal downloading websites were not available to them,” wrote the researchers in their report, Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data. ”Although there is trespassing of private property rights (copyrights), there is unlikely to be much harm done on digital music revenues,” they added. Continue Reading →

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March 20, 2013

DigitalLawUK Daily News 20 March 2013

Where you do the "Harlem Shake", "Planking" or "Owling" can cause harm if its in the workplace, or even someone else's workplace...

Where you do the “Harlem Shake”, “Planking” or “Owling” can cause harm if its in the workplace, or even someone else’s workplace…

Unseen consequences of online crazes: BBC News – Oxford University Harlem Shake librarian ‘sacked’  | New apps, easy access add to parents’ privacy fears  | Facebook lets advertisers target people with same traits as customers  | North Korea hackers suspected after major computer crash in the South  | MPs warn of £42.8m data protection shortfall  

Students at an Oxford college have called for the reinstatement of a librarian who they say was sacked after the filming of a Harlem Shake video. About 30 students took part in a version of the internet dance craze in St Hilda’s College library. It has had more than 5,000 views on YouTube. St Hilda’s Junior Common Room (JCR) passed a motion demanding the librarian is reinstated. An Oxford University spokeswoman said the college was making no comment. JCR president Esther Gosling said the librarian had been sacked and up to five students fined between £30 and £60 after the video was posted online in February.

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Posted by on March 20, 2013 in Daily News Summary and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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