Privacy
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QUICKLINK U.S. Supreme Court · October 21, 2009 · Privacy
Supreme Court halts release of petition signers in Washington state
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked the release of the names of people who petitioned to overturn a Washington state law that gives benefits to same-sex couples, Scotusblog reported.
In a 8-1 vote, the court decided Washington's secretary of state could not release the names of about 138,000 petition signatories until Protect Marriage Now, an organization opposing release, has an opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court, which will not occur before Election Day Nov. . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 5:06 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE New Jersey · July 29, 2009 · Privacy
New Jersey to withhold details of fatal child abuse cases
In the midst of an extensive overhaul of its child protection agency, New Jersey has announced it will no longer disclose detailed case reports outlining its supervision of children who die from abuse or neglect.
According to The Star-Ledger, state leaders decided six years ago that the Division of Youth and Family Services needed an overhaul after the much-publicized death of a 7-year-old. A separate agency built to examine the division also reported on the individual cases of children who had died in abuse or neglect situations, the paper said. State law already requires the state to release the name and other information about child victims in such cases, as well as to say whether DYFS ever investigated the family before.
Some open government proponents are bristling at the state's decision to pull its more extensive internal reports now.
"The state jumped in and restructured the whole operation of DYFS," said John O'Brien, executive director of the New Jersey Press Association. "Now that it seems to be working, they want to . . . [more]
— Caitlin Dickson, 7:01 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK Texas · April 27, 2009 · Privacy
Texas again tries to limit access to public employee information
The Texas House passed a bill Thursday restricting access to school district employees' birth dates and other information, according to the Associated Press.
The privacy measure is part of a wider effort to conceal the personal information about public employees. Supporters of both moves say they are meant to prevent identity theft.
The current bill also conceals home addresses and cell phone . . . [more]
— Dana Liebelson, 5:34 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE California · April 6, 2009 · Privacy
Letter from MySpace page not private, court rules
A California court ruled last week that a high school principal who sent a copy of a MySpace journal entry to a local newspaper is not liable for invading the Web author’s privacy.
University of California at Berkeley student Cynthia Moreno penned a journal entry on her MySpace page ranting against her hometown of Coalinga, Calif, according to the court opinion. The post was on her page for about a week before she removed it. When a local principal, Roger Campbell, saw the posting he sent it to the Coalinga Record to be published along with Moreno's full name.
The publication caused a stir in her neighborhood, the opinion says; Moreno's family received death threats.
Eventually, the family eventually moved away, and filed a lawsuit against the principal and the Coalinga Record. They sued for invasion of privacy and for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The claims against the newspaper were quickly dismissed under the state’s SLAPP statute, which allows the media to move to dismiss lawsuits that target speech in an attempt to block . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 6:11 pm · View reader comments (2)
QUICKLINK Michigan · March 12, 2009 · Privacy
Ex-Detroit mayor sues over released text messages
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, fresh off his stint in jail, is suing telecommunications company SkyTel for releasing his text messages, the AM Law Daily reports. The company reportedly claims it did so appropriately under court order.
Kilpatrick alleges in his lawsuit that SkyTel violated privacy laws, specifically the Stored Communications Act, in releasing text messages during a civil proceeding, according to the paper. . . . [more]
— Kathleen Cullinan, 5:07 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Pennsylvania · February 23, 2009 · Privacy
Online comments company expected to name users
The York Daily Record/Sunday News reports that the company that owns its online readers' comment section is expected to turn over the personal information of anonymous individuals who commented on a Daily Record/Sunday News story about a Dec. 28 murder.
Prosecutor Timothy Barker told a judge at a hearing Friday that his office believes at least some of the authors of the 26 story comments might have been witnesses to the stabbing death of Andrew Wright, according to . . . [more]
— Ahnalese Rushmann, 5:39 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK International · February 4, 2009 · Privacy
Google executives face criminal prosecution in Italy
A group of Google lawyers and executives are facing criminal prosecution in Italy for not immediately removing from their Italian Web site a video depicting a group of teenagers teasing a boy with Downs syndrome.
David Drummond, a senior vice president; George De Los Reyes, former chief financial officer; Peter Fleischer, global privacy council; and Arvind Desikan, head of Google Video for Europe, are facing trial later this month on charges of violating Italian privacy laws, the International Herald Tribune . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 5:46 pm · View reader comments (3)
QUICKLINK California · January 30, 2009 · Privacy
Judge supports disclosure of Proposition 8 donors
A group of supporters of the California proposition banning same-sex marriage have been denied their request to remove their donors' personal information from the state's Web page.
According to The Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. denied the groups' preliminary injunction request partly on the basis that they had not proven “irreparable injury,” and that public disclosure laws safeguard the . . . [more]
— Dana Liebelson, 1:13 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. · December 17, 2008 · Privacy
FBI listened in on Puerto Rican reporters' calls
The FBI has monitored telephone conversations of at least four journalists in connection with the arrest of Puerto Rican Senator Jorge de Castro Font.
A federal grand jury indicted the senator in October on charges of bribery, wire fraud and money laundering. He is awaiting trial.
As part of its investigation, the FBI installed wiretaps on two of Font’s telephones. Last week, the FBI notified at least four reporters that conversations they had with the senator were among the conversations intercepted, said Oscar J. Serrano, president of the Puerto Rico Journalists Association.
Serrano was contacted by the four reporters, including one with a radio station, one with a newswire agency and two with television stations. Other reporters may also have received notification letters.
Font’s telephones were monitored for most of the summer, according to one letter sent to a reporter.
Though the letters make clear that the FBI was monitoring Font’s communication, and not that of reporters, Serrano said the interception affects . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 4:56 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · October 30, 2008 · Privacy
College gossip site creator unapologetic at student Q&A
JuicyCampus.com founder Matt Ivester, whose site has been criticized as profiting from invasion of college students’ privacy and tarnishing their reputations, fielded questions this week at Georgetown University and largely brushed off concerns that the site is offensive and damages lives, The Washington Post reported.
The site’s content consists of anonymous gossip-trading and rumor-spreading -- by and about college students from about 500 campuses across . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 4:59 pm · View reader comments (1)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Florida · October 23, 2008 · Privacy
Florida court knocks out false light claims
Florida does not recognize a false light invasion of privacy claim, the state's high court held on Thursday.
In a double victory for free speech advocates, the court’s decision not to recognize the false light claim in a lawsuit against the group Jews for Jesus in effect threw out another false light suit against the Pensacola News-Journal.
Both cases were handed down by the court on the same day.
The News-Journal 's false light lawsuit involved a claim by a contractor, Joe Anderson, over an article the newspaper published that he claimed implied he had murdered his wife, whom he shot unintentionally in a hunting accident. Anderson had been awarded $18 million by a jury, though that decision was reversed by an intermediate appellate court.
The Jews for Jesus case involved a lawsuit by the stepmother of a Jews for Jesus employee. Edith Rapp sued the religious group for invasion of privacy by false light after it published an article in its newsletter that she claimed alleged . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 6:06 pm · View reader comments (2)
QUICKLINK U.S. · October 10, 2008 · Privacy
Senate committee to investigate eavesdropping in Iraq
The Senate Intelligence Committee plans to investigate claims made this week by two former military intelligence officers that they routinely eavesdropped on the private telephone conversations of journalists, aid workers and military officers in Iraq.
Adrienne Kinne, a former Army reservist, and David Murfee Faulk, a Navy linguist, told ABC News on Thursday they often listened to and transcribed personal phone conversations placed . . . [more]
— Samantha Fredrickson, 4:17 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK U.S. · August 26, 2008 · Privacy
FBI attorney says phone records request was a mistake
Valerie E. Caproni, general counsel and top attorney for the FBI, has told the Washington Times that using “exigent letters” to obtain the phone records of Washington Post and New York Times reporters was a mistake, and not malevolent.
Earlier this month, FBI Director Robert Mueller called top editors at the two papers to apologize for obtaining four reporters’ toll phone records in . . . [more]
— Matthew Pollack, 5:16 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Virginia · August 25, 2008 · Privacy
Judge sides with Va. woman who posted Social Security numbers on Web
A federal judge has ruled in favor of a Virginia woman who posted on her Web site the Social Security numbers of prominent people to make a point about the availability and potential for abuse of public records on the Internet.
According to The Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Robert Payne decided Friday that a Virginia law barring the dissemination of Social Security numbers, even those found on public records such as deeds or marriage papers, is unconstitutional . . . [more]
— Kathleen Cullinan, 4:20 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Florida · August 18, 2008 · Privacy
Fla. judge rules media can see 'D.C. Madam' photos
The public will be able to view crime scene photos taken at the Florida mobile home where the "D.C. Madam" killed herself in May, a judge ruled Friday, but the pictures can't be published.
In what media lawyer Tom Reynolds described to the St. Petersburg Times as an "eminently fair," if not necessarily "legally correct," ruling, Judge Linda Allan opted to balance the newspaper's request to view the pictures against the vehement pleas from Deborah . . . [more]
— Kathleen Cullinan, 3:47 pm · View reader comments (3)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. · June 26, 2008 · Privacy
Senate hearing asks why laptops are seized at borders
Most Americans don't bat an eye at the prospect of a luggage search at the airport. But what if a customs agent paws through your laptop, seizing and storing your personal information?
"It does happen," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisconsin) Wednesday morning at a Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights Subcommittee hearing on precisely those types of searches. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have discreetly searched travelers' laptops at the country's international airports for years, Feingold said.
And it turns out, for the time being at least, it's all perfectly legal, even though the practice could compromise journalists' confidential sources or destroy the attorney-client relationship.
Proponents of the searches emphasized at the hearing their importance to national security. "We know that terrorists carry information on their laptops," Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) said. However, most criminal cases stemming from the searches involve people caught at borders with laptops full of child pornography.
Larry Cunningham, the assistant district attorney of Bronx County, NY, told the subcommittee . . . [more]
— Stacey Laskin, 5:04 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK New Jersey · June 2, 2008 · Privacy
N.J. Supreme Court committee proposes online access to court records
Justices on the New Jersey Supreme Court heard testimony last week regarding a proposal to expand access to judicial documents. If implemented, the new rule would allow Internet publication of most records now available only at the courthouse.
The proposal follows the release of a two-year study conducted by the Supreme Court Special Committee on Public Access to Court Records. The committee, lead by Associate Justice Barry T. Albin, concluded that transparency in proceedings will increase public confidence in the court system. . . . [more]
— Stacey Laskin, 1:17 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK U.S. · March 21, 2008 · Privacy
Groups urge court to strike down surveillance law
The National Security Archive and Electronic Frontier Foundation urged a federal appeals court on Wednesday to outlaw a section of a 22-year-old surveillance law that, because of a PATRIOT Act expansion, allows the FBI to obtain private records about citizens’ communications believed to advance a terrorism or espionage investigation without court approval.
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero initially deemed the national security letter statute unconstitutional in 2004, but the Bush administration appealed the . . . [more]
— Amy Harder, 2:44 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK New Jersey · March 5, 2008 · Privacy
New Jersey adoptees gain the right to know their past
The New Jersey state Senate approved a bill on Monday that allows adults who were adopted as children to access their birth records, which until now have been sealed under state law.
There has been a fight for years as to whether the anonymity of the birth parents outweighed the importance of the adopted children’s right to know their biological and cultural identities.
Although this law will release most adoption records, the measure does allow birth parents one year from . . . [more]
— Alison Schmidt, 10:45 am · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK · February 1, 2008 · Privacy
McDermott makes first payment to Boehner
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) paid over $64,000 in damages to Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) in the first installment of what the GOP congressman said amounted to nearly $850,000 in legal fees.
In December, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a federal appeals court ruling, which held that McDermott, who lawfully obtained an illegally recorded audiotape and gave it to the press, violated state and federal wiretapping laws.
The final amount . . . [more]
— Alanna Malone, 10:35 am · Comments: 0
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