Technology Archives - Page 2 of 4

Government steps up audits of health care privacy

08/17/202009/06/2016 by Report from Counsel

The federal government has begun a much more intensive program of auditing health care providers for violations of HIPAA, the federal law that protects patients’ privacy. For the first time, the government will be auditing not only health care providers but also related businesses to whom patients’ information might be disclosed – including third-party administrators, … Read more

Clicking or e-mailing can create a binding contract

08/17/202012/15/2015 by Report from Counsel

A New York company ran a loan-application website. As part of the application process, users had to click a box to get from one screen to the next. Above the box it said, “Clicking the box below constitutes your acceptance of … the borrower registration agreement.” The borrower registration agreement wasn’t on the page, but the words “borrower registration agreement” were a hyperlink to another page that included the complete contract. In fine print, the contract said that disappointed borrowers couldn’t sue in court and had to take all claims to arbitration.

Was this binding?

Social media: New issues for business

08/17/202009/29/2015 by Report from Counsel

Social media is a relatively new field, and the law is just beginning to catch up with all the issues that are being raised for businesses.

Here’s a quick checklist of concerns. It’s by no means exhaustive, which is why a thorough legal review of a company’s social media practices is always a good idea.

Do you look at employees’ (or job applicants’) personal social media accounts? These days, many employers want to keep tabs on their workers’ social media presence. Employers want to get out ahead of problems, such as employees bad-mouthing the company on Twitter or posting confidential information on Facebook.

Businesses may be in more trouble for data breaches

08/17/202009/29/2015 by Report from Counsel

Two years ago, retailer Neiman Marcus suffered a data breach that resulted in some 350,000 customers having their credit card information compromised. About 9,200 of those customers ended up with fraudulent credit card charges.

That’s bad enough – but Neiman Marcus was then sued in a class action by customers who didn’t have any fraudulent charges on their cards. These customers said Neiman Marcus should nevertheless compensate them for the time and money they had spent on credit monitoring and other efforts to prevent fraud as a result of the hack.

Amazon sued for directing people to competing products

08/17/202009/29/2015 by Report from Counsel

A company called Multi Time Machine makes high-end military-style watches. It refuses to sell them on Amazon. If you search for the company’s watches on Amazon, you’ll get a long list of competing watches. Is this illegal? Possibly, according to a federal appeals court in San Francisco, which allowed a lawsuit against Amazon. If you … Read more

New laws may clarify estate planning for online assets

08/17/202007/23/2015 by Report from Counsel

Including online assets in estate planning is a new thing, and the legal rules aren’t always entirely clear. But a number of states are now considering laws that will make things easier.

For instance, Delaware recently became the first state to pass a comprehensive law addressing what happens to someone’s online assets when they pass away. And 13 other states are currently considering such laws, so it’s likely the legal landscape will change dramatically in the next few years. The bill being considered by Illinois’ legislature is the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, SB1376.

The Delaware law says that if a person dies, his or her executor can take control over the person’s online assets and distribute them to heirs. The same is true for trustees and other fiduciaries. This will be allowed unless the person specifically states otherwise in his or her will.

Freelancers’ Articles Are Not Free

08/17/202011/20/2014 by Report from Counsel

The U.S. Supreme Court has given a victory to freelance authors of newspaper and magazine articles, and a defeat to some major publishers of their work. The publishers hired the authors as independent contractors who would contribute articles to what is known in copyright law as a “collective work,” that is, a newspaper or magazine. Under federal copyright law, the publishers were the owners of the copyright in the collective work, giving them the right to reproduce and distribute the contributions as part of the collective work or any revision of that work. The writers themselves, however, retained the rights to their individual articles.

“Cybersmear” Lawsuits

08/17/202011/20/2014 by Report from Counsel

The free‑wheeling give and take in various online forums is leading to more defamation claims by individuals and businesses. Given that so many online speakers are anonymous, however, Internet service providers sometimes become trapped between the speaker and his offended subject. Before the alleged victim can seek redress, the perpetrator must be identified, and providers often resist divulging such information. Courts are still in the early stages of setting rules for these legal contests.

Ensure Your Financial Privacy

08/17/202005/20/2014 by Report from Counsel

There is a federal law that affords consumers significant say over the privacy of their financial information while still allowing financial institutions to share information for normal business purposes. This Act covers banks, savings and loan institutions, credit unions, insurance companies, securities firms, and even some retailers and automobile dealers that extend or make arrangements for consumer credit.
There may be more forms of personal information gathered by the institutions than you realize. They may have credit reports and records of how much you buy and borrow, where you shop, and how well or poorly you pay your bills on time.

E Mail Is Binding

08/17/202001/28/2014 by Report from Counsel

In law as in society at large, signing contracts on paper in ink (and maybe in triplicate) now seems so 20th century. If your reflex is still to regard e mail communications as only informal give and take, think again. A recent case demonstrates that if the necessary terms for an agreement are present in e mails, a binding agreement will result. If you don’t want that outcome, you are well advised to make it clear in the e mail itself that no party will be bound until a final agreement is signed by all parties.

Eric signed an agreement to buy a truck stop. The agreement included a financing contingency and required Eric to make a large refundable deposit that would be held in escrow. When Eric could not secure the necessary financing, he terminated the purchase and sale agreement and asked for his deposit back. The owner declined, saying that Eric had broken the agreement in bad faith.