The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Super-Injunctions, Twitter, and Celebrities Explained

You may have noticed that the Internet is all a-Twitter (pun intended) over super-injunctions (a/k/a superinjunctions), but despite that, it may well be that you have no idea just what a super injuntion is, nor why you should care. If you are from the U.S. you’re even less likely to know, and so if you are asking yourself “What is a super-injunction?”, well, we’ll explain.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Huffington Post Lawsuit Explained: HuffPo Sued by Its Own Bloggers for Deceptive Business Practices

The Huffington Post (which variously also goes by HuffPost, Huff Post, HuffPo, or Huff Po), is being sued in a class action law suit by its own bloggers. The lawsuit, which names Ariana Huffington and Kenneth Lerer, the two co-founders of the Huffington Post, as defendants, alleges deceptive business practices and unjust enrichment. AOL, which recently acquired the Huffington Post for $315 million (which is what triggered the lawsuit) is also a named defendant.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Zombie Cookies Tracking Your Every Move on the Internet, Consumer Reports Urges Consumers to Contact Congress

A few months ago we wrote about the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed “Do Not Track” list and legislation. One of the biggest invaders of your privacy is cookies that track you, and that respawn after you (think you) have deleted them, or, as they are known, “Zombie Cookies” (so-called because they come back from the dead). As defined in Wikipedia, “a zombie cookie is any HTTP cookie that is recreated after deletion from backups stored outside the web browser’s dedicated cookie storage.” Variations on this theme include the Adobe Local Shared Object (LSO) cookie, and the Evercookie. There was a Zombie cookie law suit last summer, levelled against such industry giants as ABC, NBC, MTV, ESPN, MySpace, and Hulu, alleging that they were using Zombie cookies that respawned after being deleted because their backups were being stored in Flash. That technology was provided by Quantcast, who was the lead defendant in the Zombie cookie lawsuit. Not long after, the FTC announced their “Do Not Track” legislation proposal, and now Consumer Reports is asking their members to contact their Congressmen in support of the proposal.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

The Winklevoss Twins Tell Their Side of the Social Network Story

If you saw The Social Network (the movie), then you know who Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss are. In The Social Network cast, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are played primarily by Armie Hammer, with Josh Pence providing a second body for whichever of the Winklevoss brothers wasn’t the primary twin in a given scene. Now Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who maintain that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole Facebook from them, tell the rest of the Winkelvoss side of the story.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Match.com Lawsuit Claims Fewer Than Half of All Match’s Dating Profiles are Legit

Online dating giant Match.com has been sued, again, this time in Federal court in Texas. The lawsuit alleges that fewer than half of all singles profiles listed on Match .com are legitimate, with more than half of the profiles being either those of previous Match customers who had cancelled their accounts or, even, scam profiles.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Lawyers for Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange Complain About Leaked Legal Documents

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested for rape in Sweden, and his lawyers are ticked off that somebody leaked the confidential police files stemming from the rape allegation. Huh???

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

“Do Not Track” List Proposed – What is a Do Not Track List and How Would it Work? We Explain

Yesterday the Feds, through the Federal Trade Commission, came out in support of a request by several NGOs to create a “Do Not Track” registry, similar to the current “Do Not Call” and “Do Not Send Junk Mail” registries, only in this case the tracking referred to in “Do Not Track” is the online tracking of Internet users across the web, tracking the websites they visit with cookies and other tracking technologies, in much the way that Facebook and their partners are currently tracking people. Among other things, this tracking allows them to have their ads follow you around the web in a practice known as ‘remarketing’ or ‘re-marketing’.

Continue Reading

Google Buzz Lawsuit Reaches Settlement, Google Emails Everyone

Earlier this year, Google was sued over its Google Buzz service. The Google Buzz lawsuit alleged that, among other things, with the rollout of Google Buzz, Google was in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Part of the issue was that when Google flipped the switch on Google Buzz, they had automatically created a social network for each of their Gmail users, assigning ‘followers’ to their Gmail users. The followers could see the users’ activities in other Google properties such as Picasa and Google Reader. In at least one known instance, that had the effect of suddenly allowing a woman’s abusive ex-husband to follow her Google Reader conversations with her new boyfriend.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Google Sues U.S. Government for Favoring Microsoft

In an interesting turn of events – especially considering all of the antitrust hot water in which Microsoft has found itself in the past with the Federal government – Google is suing the Federal government for requiring that any vendor proposals in response to a Request for Quotation (RFQ – similar to an RFP, or Request for Proposal) by the Feds to create a new, unified online messaging system, must include the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Feds Seek Broad Ability to Monitor All Internet Communications

According to government officials and insiders, the Federal government is seeking broad authority and discretion to monitor all Internet communications, including communications on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, instant messaging systems, and even (or hey, perhaps especially) encrypted emails.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Court Rules that Deleted Facebook Posts are Fair Game

If you think that because your Facebook or Twitter profile is set to “private” that it means that you can control who will see what you post, think again. In fact, even if you delete what you have posted – in your private account – you can still be forced to let others see it, even after you’ve deleted it. That’s the Court ruling in a recent case involving plaintiff Kathleen Romano, who may have deleted postings, made to her private Facebook and MySpace accounts, which would be beneficial to the defendant, the Steelcase chair company.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

British Teen Banned Forever from United States Over Content of His Email to President Obama

Always remember, and never forget, that the protections of the United States constitution extend only to U.S. citizens, and not to those hoping to visit the US. That is something that British teenager Luke Angel found out the hard way, when an email he sent to U.S. President Barack Obama landed him on the “banned forever from and never allowed entry to the United States” list. No freedom of speech for Luke!

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Should Cyberwar Have to Follow the Geneva Convention and the Rules of Engagement?

Most people are familiar, at least in name, if not content, with the Hague and Geneva conventions, even if only from hearing the terms on Hogan’s Heros. Along with outlining how enemy prisoners can and can’t be treated, they are intended, in part, to help protect civilians during times of war, by outlining rules of war – rules for the etiquette of war, if you will – despite that seeming a blatant oxymoron. Some of these rules rise to the level of law, and violations of these laws are considered “war crimes”, and the leaders of countries who don’t follow the rules can be tried in an International War Crimes Tribunal. The big question right now is whether cyberwar, and related cybercrimes, fall under the governance of these rules, and whether they should.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Craigslist Adult “Erotic” Services Section Shut Down for Good – But Only in the United States

Craigslist has apparently decided that the adult version of Craigslist personals – i.e. the ads in the “Adults services” (formerly known as “erotic services”) section of Craigslist, just weren’t worth the hassle. Craigslist has officially shut down the adult erotic services section of the various Craigslists – but only in the United States. The adult services section of the Craigslist sites has certainly seen its share of problems, including the pre-trial suicide of the so-called Craiglist Killer, Philip Markoff, who was charged with killing a prostitute that he’d picked up through her Craigslist ad.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Lawsuit Filed Over Airport Searches of Laptops and Cell Phones

When you’re going through the security gates at an airport, you’re most likely resigned to the fact that your bag will be searched, regardless of whether there is a reason to do so.   But what about your computer, laptop, or cell phone, with the overwhelming amount of personal information it contains – do you expect that to be searched?  You should, as Lisa Wayne found out the hard way when her laptop was whisked away and subjected to a half-hour search.  It turns out this is fairly routine.  Now a law suit has been filed by Wayne and others to out a halt to this practice (some would say ‘abuse’) by the TSA and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).