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NYC residents sue photographer over telephoto shots of them in their apartments

May 242013

Last week, I noted that a photography exhibit in New York was raising concerns about privacy, as the photographer, Arne Svenson, had taken pictures of his neighbors in their apartments across the street without their knowledge or consent. Now there’s a lawsuit over the matter. Adam Klasfeld of Courthouse News reports:

Martha and Matthew Foster sued [photographer Arne] Svenson in New York County Court, on behalf of themselves and their minor children. The gallery is not a party to the complaint.

The Fosters live across the street from Svenson’s studio, and say in their complaint that they had no inkling that he used them as his subjects for more than a year.

“On or about April 29, 2013, plaintiffs learned that an article had appeared in the Tribeca Citizen, a weekly news journal covering their neighborhood, which included a photograph of plaintiff Martha Foster holding her daughter Delaney inside their apartment,” the complaint states.

EEOC Gets Tough With Companies on Genetic Privacy

Laws, U.S., Workplace No Responses »

May 232013

Sue Reisinger writes:

Earlier this month the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed— and quickly settled—its first lawsuit accusing an employer of gathering illegal genetic information during a job applicant’s medical exam. The agency followed it up last Thursday by filing its first class action suit against another employer on similar grounds.

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act went into effect in 2009, and some individuals have sued companies under it. But not until this month did the government take official action to enforce GINA, as the law is called.

“Employers need to be aware that GINA prohibits requesting family medical history,” said David Lopez, general counsel of the EEOC, in a statement. “When illegal questions are required as part of the hiring process, the EEOC will be vigilant to ensure that no one be denied a job on a prohibited basis.”

Big Brother sees you off: Foreigners in US to be fingerprinted upon leaving country

Laws, Surveillance, U.S. No Responses »

May 222013

Travelers visiting the US may have to prepare for more hassles at customs: All foreign nationals leaving the country at 30 airports must have their fingerprints taken, according to a new amendment to a planned immigration reform bill.

The amendment, which was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 13-5 vote, will see departure terminals at major US airports – including JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty – equipped with high-tech systems for fingerprinting foreign nationals and scanning their passports and visas.

Irish privacy watchdog highlights concerns over public sector data sharing

Non-U.S. No Responses »

May 222013

From Out-Law.com:

Billy Hawkes, Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, said that there had been a “disturbing failure of governance” in relation to access to a social welfare database administered by the Department of Social Protection.

In 2012 three insurance companies were each found to have breached Irish data protection laws by failing to notify the Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) that they were processing ‘social welfare data’. The ODPC said that it had discovered that Zurich Insurance, FBD Insurance and Travelers Insurance Company each held social welfare data that matched information stored on the Department of Social Protection’s systems, which were not publically accessible.

Names disappear from Wisconsin’s police reports

Laws No Responses »

May 212013

Since September 2010, I’ve been following a case involving a man who sued the village of Palatine, Illinois in federal court for disclosing too much personal information on a summons left on his windshield. His complaint was based on the Driver Privacy Protection Act (DPPA). In August 2011, a federal court upheld the village’s actions. The plaintiff appealed, and when the appeals court affirmed the district court ruling, he requested re-hearing en banc. The full panel agreed with him. In September 2012, a judge refused to stay their decision.

That Illinois case and the Seventh Circuit’s ruling has had some interesting effects in Wisconsin, it seems. Eric Litke reports:

Police work that has traditionally been conducted in public view is increasingly being shielded, as insurance companies and municipal attorneys throughout Wisconsin push departments to withhold names from reports due to liability concerns.

A long-ignored federal privacy law is driving the redactions, interpreted by some municipal leaders to overrule a state public records law that says the full reports should be released.

With a growing number of departments redacting crash reports — and, in some cases, all incident reports — drivers injured in crashes may have no right to the identity of the other motorist, and communities can be kept in the dark about who police are arresting.

Apple Wants Privacy Class Action to Go Away

Breaches, Business, Court No Responses »

May 212013

Philip A. Janquart reports:

Apple Inc. has filed a motion for summary judgment in a privacy class action lawsuit.

The suit claims the company accesses and tracks personal information through third-party iPhone applications without user permission.

[...]

Apple says the plaintiffs lack standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution and under the UCL, and have no evidence of any material misrepresentations or nondisclosures.

In closing, Apple states in its motion that, “This lawsuit never should have been brought. There was never a factual basis for it, never a law broken, and never a person harmed. Discovery of the plaintiffs and their phones has definitively established that the facts plaintiffs invented to circumvent the court’s Sept. 20, 2011 order have no bases.”

Harvard Law Review: papers from privacy and technology symposium

Misc No Responses »

May 212013

The current (May) issue of Harvard Law Review has papers from a Privacy and Technology Symposium. You can download the full papers from the links below:

SYMPOSIUM
PRIVACY AND TECHNOLOGY
Introduction: Privacy Self-Management and the Consent Dilemmas
Daniel J. Solove

What Privacy is For
Julie E. Cohen

The Dangers of Surveillance
Neil M. Richards

The EU-U.S. Privacy Collision: A Turn to Institutions and Procedures
Paul M. Schwartz

Toward a Positive Theory of Privacy Law
Lior Jacob Strahilevitz

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