Google Using Scare Tactics to Incite Fear of New Legislation in Users of Google Analytics, Gmail, and Other Google Digital Tools
Continue Reading

Google Using Scare Tactics to Incite Fear of New Legislation in Users of Google Analytics, Gmail, and Other Google Digital Tools

If you recently received email from Google urging you to “understand how new legislation could harm your business”, yet with no information about WHAT legislation they’re talking about, well, that’s because they are hiding the ball on that. (Hint: It’s the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (there may be others, but this is the biggie).)

the iot internet of things cybersecurity improvement act
Continue Reading

About the New Internet of Things Cybersecurity Law That Passed Last Month

The IoT (Internet of Things) Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020 was signed into law a few weeks ago. Here’s a summary plus the full text.

Are You a Gig Worker Impacted by the New Laws? Let Us Know!
Continue Reading

Are You a Gig Worker or Consumer Impacted by the New Gig Work Laws? Let Us Know!

Uber, Lyft, PostMates and DoorDash gig workers, among others, are all covered by California’s new gig worker law, AB5, which into effect last week on January 1st, 2020. How has it affected you?

Washington Massachusetts Maryland New York North Dakota Rhode Island Hawaii Privacy Laws Legislation Pending
Continue Reading

Roundup: Washington, Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Hawaii All Have GDPR-Like Privacy Legislation Pending

There is a groundswell of GDPR-like privacy legislation being introduced in several states, with laws to protect the privacy of online personal information and data being introduced in Washington, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island and Hawaii.

vermont personal data law
Continue Reading

Tough New Law Regarding Selling Your Personal Data Goes Into Effect in Vermont

With little national fanfare, Vermont’s new data brokering law – requiring businesses which buy and sell your personal data to register and disclose to the state of Vermont that they are a data broker – went into effect a few weeks ago.

explaining the law in plain english
Continue Reading

Please Welcome Our Sister Site: Explaining the Law.com!

We are very pleased to welcome Explaining the Law.com to our ISIPP Publishing family! ExplainingTheLaw.com is a project spearheaded by our editor and publisher, Anne P. Mitchell, attorney at law. Anne is a graduate of Stanford Law School, and a retired professor of law, so she’s pretty darned good at explaining the law in plain English.

colorado data protection law
Continue Reading

Colorado Second State to Enact New Consumer Data Protection Law in 90 Days

Hot on the heels of California passing their California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) which is actually a consumer data protection law, and on the slightly more distant heels of the passage and enactment of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Colorado has both passed and enacted the Colorado Consumer Data Protection Act (CCDPA).

livejournal russian logo
Continue Reading

LiveJournal Users Deleting their Accounts in Droves Now that LiveJournal is Fully Under Russian Control – Here’s Why

LiveJournal has come fully under Russian control since January of this year, and as of last week LiveJournal and its users are now completely subject to Russian law. In reality, LiveJournal (also known as LJ), a place to, well, live journal your thoughts, etc., has been owned by Russian interests since 2007, but many users either didn’t know that, or didn’t care because LJ was still being managed out of California, and the LiveJournal servers were located in California. But all that has changed. (Note: We have provided the full text of both the LiveJournal TOS and the controlling Russian law at the end of this article.)

california bans holding cell phone while driving
Continue Reading

It is Now Illegal to Hold a Cellphone to Your Ear While Driving in California

A law that was passed in California last year, and that went into effect on January 1, 2017, makes it illegal for anyone operating a motor vehicle to hold a cellphone in their hand while driving. Assembly Bill 1785 (“AB 1785”) criminalizes “driving a motor vehicle while holding and operating a handheld wireless telephone or a wireless electronic communication device.”

justice scales
Continue Reading

Federal Court Holds “No Expectation of Privacy on Personal Computer”

In a stunning decision, a Federal court has held that a user has no expectation of privacy for their personal computer if they have connected that computer to the Internet. While the case and holding is fairly complex, this part of the holding boils down to this: in this day and age we know that computers that are connected to the Internet can be hacked, and knowing this, we are not entitled to an expectation of privacy on our personal computers.

cloud provides who tell users about government subpoenas warrants large
Continue Reading

U.S. House of Representatives Passes Email Privacy Act

For more than four years we have been telling you that law enforcement can get to any electronic communications you have stored for more than 180 days in the cloud (and that ‘cloud’ is just a fancy word for “somebody else’s computer”). This is because the Electronics Communication Privacy Act (ECPA) only requires a subpoena in order for a governmental agency to get at those communications records that you have stored on that third-party server – they do not need a warrant.

Continue Reading

UK Passes Law Making Domestic Violence over Social Media a Crime

The United Kingdom has passed a law that recognizes ‘domestic violence over social media’, and makes it a punishable offense. According to the new law, threatening or even monitoring someone via social media counts as domestic violence. So how do they distinguish between the average act of ‘following’ someone on Facebook or Twitter, and monitoring? Good question.

nysd microsoft warrant ireland caption
Continue Reading

Microsoft Fights Federal Warrant to Access Email Data in Ireland

Yesterday we told you about how Microsoft is one of several companies who are encrypting their services and hardening their systems against the prying of nosy agencies like the NSA. Now Microsoft is fighting a Federal court order that they turn over the data for a user’s email account whose email data resides on a server outside of the U.S. (in Ireland, to be specific).

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

Obama Says “Unlock a Cell Phone, Go to Jail” Law Should Be Abolished

Back in February we told you that it had just become illegal, on a Federal (i.e national) level, to unlock a cell phone – yours or anyone else’s. This was owing to the Library of Congress’ inaction, specifically their failing to renew an exemption to the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act). The exemption is what made it legal to unlock a cell phone despite that otherwise the DMCA would prohibit it. Not only that, but starting next year, you could go to prison for five years for unlocking a cell phone without the carrier’s permission. Now President Obama is leaning on the FCC to make unlocking your cell phone legal.

The Internet Patrol default featured image
Continue Reading

California Law AB 242 Would Require Privacy Policies to be Written at an 8th Grade Reading Level and be No Longer Than 100 Words

Proposed California law AB 242, introduced by Assemblyman Ed Chau, is creating quite a buzz due to its wording, or rather, proposed lack of wording. AB 242 would require that all commercial websites and services offered through the Internet which collect personal information about California consumers make its privacy policy be written at a level of 8th grade reading, and be no longer 100 words.