Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%
Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.
Lawful Data-Mining of Social Networks
Blogs simultaneously provide Internet users with social-network prospects and employers with a previously unavailable source of information suitable for employment-assessment decisions.
And it's in this intersection on the Information Superhighway where often occurs a collision of worlds, perspectives and direction that frequently cripples or kills prospects, and individuals' aspirations. Employees of e-commerce companies aren't immune to such collisions, nor are agents of the companies who gather data on prospective or current employees, if they go about their work unlawfully, or in other improper ways that could lead to legal or other types of regulatory action.
While social-network users may argue that the content they've posted on virtual social networks is private because it's theirs and because it depicts private acts that aren't, except for appearing on the Internet, part of the public realm, courts have unequivocally ruled that the revelation of personal information in a public manner ' and putting information on the Internet, to which millions of users have access as a public forum, is a very public manner ' typically results in the diminution or elimination of reasonable privacy expectations.
Consider this: With the use of basic information, including a valid e-mail address, a person may establish a presence on many social network sites, such as Windows Live Spaces, MySpace and Facebook. This means that blog users can freely post content that anonymous third parties, including potential or actual employers, are equally free to read. Yes, it's out there, and despite many users' confidence in their Web skills, they don't realize that what they're putting out there is typically fair ' and often attractive ' game in an open season for information hunters.
Hurt feelings, and legal squabbles, will ensue ' and have, aplenty.
To avoid legal difficulties when company representatives mine information about people from social-network locations, counsel would do well to advise employer clients to use caution and discretion, for certain, but also to make sure they know that they should employ three particular policies when using information mined from blogs. These three particular policies that may help companies to ensure the lawful use of blogs include specific actions associated with third parties and existing and potential employees.
Here's how to proceed.
First, attempt to ensure that the firm's personnel who research potential employees' backgrounds comply with the appropriate third-party terms-of-use agreements while data-mining blogs. They are, after all, a visiting third party, and may not necessarily in their search be a member of a site's “network,” say, of “friends,” or other type of user designation.
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
Legal Possession: What Does It Mean?
Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.
The Stranger to the Deed Rule
In 1987, a unanimous Court of Appeals reaffirmed the vitality of the "stranger to the deed" rule, which holds that if a grantor executes a deed to a grantee purporting to create an easement in a third party, the easement is invalid. Daniello v. Wagner, decided by the Second Department on November 29th, makes it clear that not all grantors (or their lawyers) have received the Court of Appeals' message, suggesting that the rule needs re-examination.