Welcome to Socially Aware

Socially Aware is devoted to the law and business of social media, proactively addressing emerging issues and keeping our clients informed of new developments. We cover fields such as artificial intelligence, privacy and data security, Section 230, intellectual property, and much more.

June 28, 2016 - European Union, Data Security, Privacy, UK
Brexit: Data Protection Implications
As the entire world knows, the United Kingdom has voted by a narrow majority to leave the European Union (“Brexit”). But the Brexit process will take time, and the implications for businesses will also unfold over time. In this blog post, we take a look
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June 24, 2016 - Protected Speech, Live streaming, Marketing, Ethics
Social Links: Livestreaming goes mainstream; social-media-use guidance for judges; three years in jail for trolling?
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Facebook signs more than $50 million worth of deals with media firms and celebrities to create videos for its live-streaming service. Tumblr is jumping on the live video bandwagon, too—but via live-streaming platform partners, not through its own service. C-Span picked up live feeds
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June 23, 2016 - Copyright, Litigation
The Kirtsaeng Opinion: Supreme Court Guidance on Attorneys’ Fees Awards in Copyright Cases
Recently, in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. , the U.S. Supreme Court provided substantial guidance in an unsettled area of law by holding that, when deciding whether to award attorneys’ fees under 17 U.S.C. §505 , the Copyright Act’s fee-shifting provision, a
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June 17, 2016 - Advertising, Online Promotions, Marketing, Ethics, Mobile
Social Links: The ramifications of Microsoft’s LinkedIn purchase; the brands using Snapchat; lawyers’ social media use
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Lots of press surrounding Microsoft’s purchase of LinkedIn: Will LinkedIn change as a result? Will the Microsoft purchase inspire a Twitter acquisition ? “Spam King” gets 30 months in jail for sending 27 million messages. One columnist says you should stop measuring your social
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June 16, 2016 - Privacy, Compliance, Litigation
California Court of Appeal Rules That State Attorney General’s Privacy Suit Over Fly Delta Mobile App Is Preempted
In the recently decided People ex rel. Harris v. Delta Air Lines , California’s Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed the dismissal of the State of California’s complaint against Delta Air Lines, Inc., which alleged that the company’s Fly Delta mobile application violated California’s privacy
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June 14, 2016 - E-Commerce, Terms of Use, Litigation
Terms and Conditions Buried in Easily Ignored Scroll Box Don’t Cut It, the Seventh Circuit Holds
By: Aaron P. Rubin
As we have noted before , if you want to increase the likelihood that your website terms of use are enforceable against users, you need to do two things. First, you need to display the terms to users in a conspicuous way, and second,
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June 10, 2016 - Advertising, Digital Content, Endorsement Guides, FTC, Disappearing Content, Fraud, Marketing, Ethics, Compliance
Social Links: Social’s potential to upend the investment industry; online ad fraud; a proposal to fix Twitter
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Social media has upended a number of industries. Is Wall Street next ? Facebook is getting into the video game live-streaming business. Steven Avery’s defense attorney is keeping her 163,000 Twitter followers abreast of her ongoing defense work on behalf of the “Making a Murderer” documentary
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June 02, 2016 - FTC, Big Data, Employment Law, Compliance, Litigation
Big Data Can Lead to Big Legal Problems For Companies
By: Mary Race
Deluged with an unprecedented amount of information available for analysis, companies in just about every industry are discovering increasingly sophisticated ways to make market observations, predictions and evaluations. Big Data can help companies make decisions ranging from which candidates to hire to which consumers
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June 02, 2016 - Digital Content, European Union, Cyberbullying, Disappearing Content, Compliance
Social Links: The rise of social news; how technology hijacks our attention; are websites a dying business?
By: Aaron P. Rubin
In a fascinating, must-read article, a Google design ethicist explains the techniques that engineers and entrepreneurs employ to keep us hooked on the web. A majority of U.S. adults—62%—now get their news on social media. An apartment complex in Utah is trying to force
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May 27, 2016 - Advertising, Internet of Things, FTC, Marketing, Defamation, Litigation
Social Links: Publishers claim ad blockers violate FTC rules; Twitter bags its “buy button”; has the IoT gone too far?
By: Aaron P. Rubin
The Newspaper Association of America has filed a first-of-its-kind complaint with the FTC over certain ad blocking technologies. Is it “Internet” or “internet”? The Associated Press is about to change the capitalization rule. Lots of people criticized Instagram’s new logo, but, according to a
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Welcome to Socially Aware

Brexit: Data Protection Implications

Social Links: Livestreaming goes mainstream; social-media-use guidance for judges; three years in jail for trolling?

By: Aaron P. Rubin

The Kirtsaeng Opinion: Supreme Court Guidance on Attorneys’ Fees Awards in Copyright Cases

Social Links: The ramifications of Microsoft’s LinkedIn purchase; the brands using Snapchat; lawyers’ social media use

By: Aaron P. Rubin

California Court of Appeal Rules That State Attorney General’s Privacy Suit Over Fly Delta Mobile App Is Preempted

Terms and Conditions Buried in Easily Ignored Scroll Box Don’t Cut It, the Seventh Circuit Holds

By: Aaron P. Rubin

Social Links: Social’s potential to upend the investment industry; online ad fraud; a proposal to fix Twitter

By: Aaron P. Rubin

Big Data Can Lead to Big Legal Problems For Companies

By: Mary Race

Social Links: The rise of social news; how technology hijacks our attention; are websites a dying business?

By: Aaron P. Rubin

Social Links: Publishers claim ad blockers violate FTC rules; Twitter bags its “buy button”; has the IoT gone too far?

By: Aaron P. Rubin