Facebook beats privacy lawsuit in U.S. over user tracking
… In a decision
late on Friday, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California said
the plaintiffs failed to show they had a
reasonable expectation of privacy, or that they suffered any
"realistic" economic harm or loss.
The plaintiffs claimed that
Facebook violated federal and California privacy and wiretapping laws by
storing cookies on their browsers that tracked when they visited outside
websites containing Facebook "like" buttons.
But the judge said the plaintiffs could have taken steps to keep their
browsing histories private, and failed to show that Menlo Park,
California-based Facebook illegally "intercepted" or eavesdropped on
their communications.
"The fact that a
user's web browser automatically sends the same information to both
parties," meaning Facebook and an outside website, "does not
establish that one party intercepted the user's communication with the
other," Davila wrote.
… The case
is In re: Facebook Internet Tracking Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern
District of California, No. 12-md-02314.
A Trump-ish reaction to criticism? A Facebook reaction to Trump?
Facebook Is Fighting A Gag Order Over Search Warrants For
User Account Information
… According to the
limited information unsealed so far, Facebook received search warrants from the
government for three account records over a three-month period. The warrants were accompanied by a
nondisclosure order from a District of Columbia Superior Court judge barring Facebook from notifying users about the
warrants before Facebook complied — an order the tech company is now
challenging.
Most details about the case remain under seal, although
one recent filing suggests that the warrants relate to the mass arrests in
Washington, DC, during President Trump’s inauguration.
… Facebook
unsuccessfully challenged the gag order in Superior Court, and then took the
case to the DC Court of Appeals. In a
June 14 order, a three-judge panel of the DC Court of Appeals ruled
that an unsealed notice about the case could be provided to any groups that
Facebook or the government thought might want to weigh in.
… The scope of the
warrants served on Facebook “is like a warrant telling officers to seize all
the papers and photographs in someone’s home, so prosecutors can peruse them at
leisure looking for evidence,” Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the American
Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, told BuzzFeed News in an
email. “This violates the Fourth
Amendment, which requires that warrants must ‘particularly describ[e] ... the
things to be seized’ – a requirement that was designed to prohibit just such
‘general warrants.’”
Three briefs in support of Facebook were filed on Friday. One represented the views of eight tech companies – Microsoft,
Google, Apple, Snap, Dropbox, Twitter, Yelp, and Avvo – along with the
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; another came from the American Civil Liberties Union and Public
Citizen Litigation Group; and a third was filed on behalf of the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
Access Now, Center for Democracy & Technology, and New America’s Open
Technology Institute.
“Don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cover.”
North Korea tests missile it claims can reach 'anywhere in
the world'
North Korea claims to have conducted its first successful
test of a long-range missile that it says can "reach anywhere in the
world."
… The missile,
referred to as Hwasong-14 on state TV, flew into waters east of the Korean
Peninsula and may have landed in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends
200 nautical miles from its coastline, according to a Japanese defense
official.
(Related).
Donald Trump's questionable strategy in Asia: The Yomiuri
Shimbun columnist
Something for my students.
Unfortunately.
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