My article, “Don’t Connect Your Phone to Rental Cars” explained how rental cars (and your leased car!) can collect data from your smartphone which creates a vulnerability when the next driver takes the car. The original post was a Business Advocate post at McDonald Hopkins.com, here.  It was also cross-posted …

You may have heard, in the last week, a story involving Ted Cruz, when he was solicitor general for Texas, defending an anti-“obscene devices” statute (more blithely referred to as the “anti-dildo” law). The case is Reliable Consultants, Inv. d/b/a Dreamer’s and Le Rouge Boutique / PHE, Inc. d/b/a Adam …

I am pleased to discuss “Anatomy of an Internet Defamation Case” with Professor Jan Jacobowitz‘s Social Media & the Law class at the University of Miami Law School. In this presentation, we briefly discuss Elonis v. United States and we analyze the claims, defenses, and potential strategies of a pending …

An Instagram user in Illinois filed a February 5, 2016 class action lawsuit alleging that Groupon was wrongfully using Instagram’s API to “scrape” Instagram user photos and place them on Groupon’s Deal pages in order to promote Groupon sales. The lawsuit is Christine Dancel, individually and on behalf of all …

The FTC recently announced settlement with Henry Schein Practice Solutions for $250,000 in exchange for resolving the FTC’s claims that Schein falsely advertised that its dental office management software provided encryption. You can read the article, “The Database Software says it is ‘encrypted’… but is it?” here at McDonald Hopkins’ …

This one page article explains the 9 most common ways your clients and companies get hacked — in a single page Palm Beach Bar article. Don’t know a DDOS from a SQL attack? Brute force or a reverse brute force. Read the kama sutra of hacking-for-lawyers, here.

        Was There a Numbers Station in Palm Beach County? [PDF of June 2015 Palm Beach Bar article is here] In the past two years, we have been increasingly exposed to the “cool” side of math: cryptography and encryption.  Algorithms were not something you likely learned in …

Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal recently ruled in Melissa Leach v. Tara Michelle Kersey that, under case-specific facts, sending messages, Facebook friending, and posting about another person on She’s A HomeWrecker.com were not “cyberstalking” under Florida Statute 784.0485. Under the cyberstalking statute, there must be at least two incidents …

Lawyers (and other professionals) have ethical obligations to reasonably know about the technology they use — and ensure that communications are confidential and protected. This article from the December 2014 Palm Beach Bar Journal explains a dozen privacy settings for your iPhone or iPad which should increase your security.

Special thanks to the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce for hosting “NSA Mass Surveillance – How Secure Are Your Calls and Emails?“ If you would like to download a PDF of the presentation, it is here (also under “Materials, along the right column of this page).

In the wake of the Snowden disclosures, lawyers and their clients are looking for ways to communicate, research, and generally use the internet without mass surveillance. This article from the April 2014 edition of the Palm Beach Bar Bulletin explains (a) Tor and its practical applications to use the internet …

Revenge porn may or may not be prosecuted in your state, depending upon how they were obtained, whether copyrights exist, and if a video voyeurism statute applies. The site WomenAgainstRevengePorn.com has some step-by-step hints to remove photos. If you have a copy of the nude picture, you can use Google’s …

Come join us via the internet in a 1.5 hour webinar about spying, surveillance, GPS monitoring, keylogging, and other privacy invasions which occur in the context of divorce cases. While this is discussed in the context of divorces, these tips and techniques arise in our personal and professional lives, regardless …

  Thanks to the Palm Beach County Bar Association’s Family Law CLE Committee for inviting me to speak at the “Spying Spouses” seminar today. The materials for my section on “Family Law Discovery: Social Media and E-Discovery” is here. We discussed: * mistakes that lawyers make in e-discovery and social …

  New terms and conditions going into effect on November 11, 2013 for Google Plus members will permit Google to use your photo in ads. Here’s how to turn it off: The following is long but I’m assuming you haven’t used Google Plus since you signed up! 1.  Log into …