by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) Our insistence on having access to free services such as Facebook or Twitter both heralds the death of the open web and, at the same time, has given rise to most of the online privacy-related controversies in recent years.
Tag archives: by paul Jacobson
Tech Law: Is your marketing strategy diabetic?
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) It occurred to me that what most marketers are doing is analogous to what I did for years. I see the big contributor to my diabetes onset as being unrestrained consumption. In a sense, this is what marketers active on the social Web are doing too. They work in a fascinating and engaging space and often do so with little regard to the legal consequences of their campaigns.
Tech Law: NSA spying negates attorney-client privilege
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) To say recent revelations about the US National Security Agency’s global surveillance campaign are unsettling is an understatement. While we are still getting to terms with the extent of the surveillance we have all been subject to, a few things are pretty clear:
The NSA has been collecting both the metadata relating to our digital communications as well as their content (the US government has maintained that it does not collect the content of US citizens’ communications but that has been challenged).
Internet services we rely on are not immune to the NSA’s campaign. On the contrary, their data is being accessed, either directly or indirectly, and stored for future reference in case they do something illegal or problematic in the future.
You may think that if you don’t rely on the larger Web service providers (apparently with the exception of Twitter which, as I understand it, refuses to co-operate with the NSA) you are immune from scrutiny but that is a fallacy. The NSA has basically tied itself into the Internet’s backbone and monitors all traffic passing through the routers and infrastucture it can see. What this means is that if the data you send or receive passes through any of the Web services that have been co-opted by the NSA under the USA’s secrecy laws or the very Internet infrastructure the NSA is monitoring, your data is exposed to the NSA’s scrutiny.
Tech Law: Processing, personal information and direct marketing under POPI
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) There is a lot more to the anticipated Protection of Personal Information Act and, in this post, I’d like to give you an overview of two further important terms used in the Protection of Personal Information Bill, namely “personal information” and “processing”.
Tech Law: Your Oscar Pistorius conjecture could get you sued
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) The Oscar Pistorius case has enthralled South Africans who are torn between supporting their hero and their disappointment at seemingly being let down by a South African icon. The discussion has practically overwhelmed my Twitter stream and people have expressed opinions on Pistorius’ guilt and innocence well before a court has reached any conclusions of its own.
Tech Law: Who owns your social media account when you resign?
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) The question of who owns your social media account and can legitimately claim your connections with your communities has popped up again in the last few days. David Graham from Deloitte posed the question on Twitter and David wrote an article for Memeburn titled “Who owns your social media account and community when you resign?”. I wrote about this topic in November 2011 in a post titled “When ex-employees take your Twitter followers away from you” and the topic is still very relevant today. That said, there is another perspective on this issue which neither my or David’s article dealt with: What happens when you introduce your community of followers and connections to a new employer?
Tech Law: SA law advances dealing with social Web issues in Facebook defamation ruling
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) The innocuous looking case of H v W which was handed down in the South Gauteng High Court on 30 January 2013 is anything but. Judge Willis’ 30 page judgment recognises the harm a Facebook post can do to a person’s reputation and throws the weight of the Court behind the person defamed (and who can afford the legal fees).
Tech Law: Is WHATSAPP violating your privacy rights?
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) he popular mobile and multi-platform messaging service, WhatsApp, was investigated recently by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Dutch Data Protection Authority for apparent violations of Canadian and Dutch privacy laws. The investigation found a number of violations and the Canadian Privacy Commissioner released an update on 28 January 2013 reporting back on the violations which have since been addressed and those which remain unresolved.
Tech Law: Social media insight — Randi Zuckerberg and contextual privacy
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) One of the biggest ironies of the 2012 holiday season was Randi Zuckerberg’s family photo being tweeted by her sister’s Facebook friend, Callie Schweitzer, and the resulting privacy debate.
Tech Law: Media myths about the new Instagram Terms of Use
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) A number of media services are clinging to the idea that Instagram is selling users’ content and that Instagram has the right to do this in perpetuity. As usual, many of these media services have not taken the time to actually read and understand the Terms of Use or the changes that are coming next month.