Email law and the fight against spam

Email law took a major turn almost a year ago since the implementation of Can-Spam, the federal law that sets email marketing standards and makes it less complicated for law enforcement to go after John Doe spammers. Speakers at MIT's 2006 Spam Conference were notably cognizant of the recent proposals of white lists and AOL's Goodmail, a pay per email service offering preferential treatment in email delivery for marketers.

The fight against spam, phishing and email fraud should focus on economic incentives and aiding law enforcement, according attendees at a conference examining the problem this week.

Internet abuse follows viruses in work security stakes, says survey | OUT-LAW.COM

A report on email and internet use in the workplacesponsored by security software specialist, Clearswift, PwC reveals that 41% of the worst workplace incidents involved staff accessing inappropriate websites and a further 36% of worst incidents related to excessive web surfing. The most serious of such incidents involved access to illegal material; several companies reported incidents of staff accessing child pornography.

The misuse of the internet by staff accessing inappropriate websites or spending too long online is second only to viruses as a cause of reported security incidents.

Email Law - Spammer fined $900,000 for breaching CAN-SPAM Act | OUT-LAW.COM

Email law packed a new punch with the fining of Internet marketing firm Jumpstart Technologies, which agreed to pay $900,000 to settle a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that the firm violated US anti-spam rules by sending disguised and misleading emails to consumers. Jumpstart has not admitted any breach of the Act.

The fine is the largest imposed so far for breaches of the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act, also known as the CAN-SPAM Act

Privacy Law at Cornell - The Wex page

Cornell University's law site - for any law, but obviously privacy law, email law and similar, is an excellent resource for starting research on privacy law issues. Check it out for up-to-date resources.

Email Law Issues: Email etiquette rules for effective email replies

Email Replies is a site with tips on email etiquette and email policy issues. It carries some useful tips on how to handle your company email. A useful starting off point for developing your firm's email policies.

Email policy issues: How to prioritize email

Email policy issues frequently relate to sheer email volume and how that is best dealt with. A new prioritization software package helps users manage their items with powerful dashboard views integrated into Outlook.

Its from ClearContext. Check it out: Email policy issues

Privacy policies and the Web: Who reads them anyway?

Privacy policies on websites? Who ever reads them?

According to an AsiaMedia report more than 60 per cent of young internet users do not read privacy policy statements despite showing a high awareness of guarding their personal information.

The 1,002 respondents aged between 15 and 29 were interviewed in a study conducted by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data. The findings showed that 95 per cent of the respondents used the internet but that only 27 per cent of them were willing to provide personal data and only 12 per cent would give out their identity card number.

Over half of those polled said they had never made an online transaction, while 77 per cent of those who had participated in transactions by using the internet said their major concern was misuse of their personal data.

How different might any of this be in the US, Europe or elsewhere? Not much, I'll bet. But when the chips are down and the law's poking its nose into a transfer of personal data, the need for a belts and braces privacy policy comes into its own. Usually.

Blogs raise workplace privacy concerns but can be managerial tool as well

Blogs and workplace privacy have become a central issue for employers, according to University of Cincinnati Professor of Law Rafael Gely, who says blogs have created a new space—the blogosphere—where employees may communicate about workplace issues and, more recently, where employers have become interested in communicating with employees as well.

It didn't take a university professor to tell us that, but what's more interesting is
a recent study analyzing the content of blogs shows that about nine percent of the comments posted in blogs are related to comments about the blogger's employer. That figure represents a substantially large number of individuals talking about their jobs once they leave the workplace, he pointed out, given estimates of the existence of over 30 million blogs.

Ohio law trumps federal medical privacy rules

Ohio's public records law trumps federal medical privacy rules, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Friday in ordering the Cincinnati Health Department to give a newspaper records on lead paint hazards.

Attorneys for both sides had called this one of the first tests in the nation of how the federal privacy law interacts with state public records laws that conflict with it.
"This could have nationwide impact," said John Greiner, attorney for The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Eliot Spitzer launches into privacy-list marketeers

New York's caped crusader Eliot Spitzer has put on notice all those involved in dealing in private information.

Email giant Datran Media has agreed to a $1m+ fine for knowingly buying lists from companies with privacy policies that promised not to sell them.

The case, which Spitzer described as the biggest violation of a privacy policy yet, promises to change the way the industry does business, said Chris Hoofnagle, an attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center who regularly publicized sales of lists that were supposedly protected by privacy policies.

Spitzer lawsuit changes the way the private information biz does its biz

New York's caped crusader Eliot Spitzer has put on notice all those involved in dealing in private information.

Wired Magazine reports that email giant Datran Media has agreed to a $1m+ fine for knowingly buying lists from companies with privacy policies that promised not to sell them.

The case, which Spitzer described as the biggest violation of a privacy policy yet, promises to change the way the industry does business, said Chris Hoofnagle, an attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center who regularly publicized sales of lists that were supposedly protected by privacy policies.

Spitzer lawsuit changes the way the private information biz does its biz

New York's caped crusader Eliot Spitzer has put on notice all those involved in dealing in private information. Wired Magazine reports that email giant Datran Media has agreed to a $1m+ fine for knowingly buying lists from companies with privacy policies that promised not to sell them.

The case, which Spitzer described as the biggest violation of a privacy policy yet, promises to change the way the industry does business, said Chris Hoofnagle, an attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center who regularly publicized sales of lists that were supposedly protected by privacy policies.

Spitzer lawsuit changes the way the private information biz does its biz

New York's caped crusader Eliot Spitzer has put on notice all those involved in dealing in private information. Wired Magazine reports that email giant Datran Media has agreed to a $1m+ fine for knowingly buying lists from companies with privacy policies that promised not to sell them.

The case, which Spitzer described as the biggest violation of a privacy policy yet, promises to change the way the industry does business, said Chris Hoofnagle, an attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center who regularly publicized sales of lists that were supposedly protected by privacy policies.

New Privacy Portal from Canada

The University of Toronto has provided a portal for privacy law information, based on an intiative from the Ontario Privacy Commissioner's Office. The new Centre for Communications and Information Technology is supported by Microsoft Canada & Bell Security Solutions and is one of the first public private organizations set up to deal with privacy law issues, forums and the like. Details at IT Business Canada

Email tops the 'Worst' top 10 list and Spitzer hits spam artists

The Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has given internet companies the dubious honor of being top of his top ten of consumer complaints.

In 2005, the Internet beat out perennial complaint magnets such as the automobile industry—which includes used car dealers, body shops, and mechanics—ID theft, home repair, and landlord/tenant cases.

And in what he called the largest breach of privacy in Internet history, Eliot Spitzer, has forced Datran Media, a New York City-based online marketing firm to pay $1.1 million in penalties, disgorgements, and costs.

The settlement follows a six-month investigation into whether the five-year-old company, which lists Cingular, America Online, British Airways, Overstock, Nielsen, Orbitz, and AARP among its clients, improperly obtained personal information on more than 6 million American consumers.

Bill Gates - Privacy Lobbyist? You've got to be joking, right?

No. Microsoft - long time critic of privacy laws - has joined the Center for Democracy and Technology — a public policy group that lobbies Congress on privacy issues. The reason?
To call for a national Internet privacy law. Even some data brokers, who had their share of data breaches in 2005, have begun to support omnibus privacy legislation.

The change of heart comes from MS's perception of the privacy law area being a "jumble" of state and federal laws that create problems for businesses and consumers alike.

Largely true. More than 20 states have passed data breach or privacy legislation, and a national law may pass this year. While many states have followed the example of California’s 2003 law, significant ambiguity remains. For businesses looking to uphold industry best practices and promote the security of their brand, having a uniform standard might not be such a terrible thing. It’s also good for business to get into the mix: Without industry input, privacy legislation might go further than any of us would like.

Come on UK - get your email act together

Lawyers Osbourne Clarke have surveyed Europe's interactive marketing laws and found that the UK is the weakest at enforcing email marketing laws - the stuff that crams our inboxes with debt consolidation, faster connections and private needs.

The UK is the weakest major country in Europe at enforcing email marketing laws,according to a new 17-nation study by law firm Osbourne Clarke.

Penalries for offences also vary. To date, France has imposed a fine of £205,000 and Denmark one of £154,000. But in the UK only one civil case has occured to date, resulting in a paltry fine of £270.

In contrast, the most active enforcement regimes are in Austria with over 500 cases to date, Greece with over 70, Italy with over 50 and Spain on over 50.

See the report details at: http://www.lawfuel.com/index.php?page=press_releases&handler=focus&pressreleaseid=5658&return=blur-article

Inbox? Inbox? How to handle email before the email law issues get to handle us

It may have been written three years' ago but we revisited the report "Managing Incoming Email", but Mark Hurst (See http://www.goodexperience.com/reports/e-mail/email-report-goodexperience.pdf) and it reconfirms a lot of stuff we may have needed: like using the inbox as a filing system or a to-do list.

Email law and privacy law issues have altered the way many of us look at email these days - specially with the patchwork quilt laws that continue to erupt around us. Although Hurst's paper is written before many of these laws became law, its a worthwhile and sage reminder of what we need to do in order to put our lives - and inboxes - in order.