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.

February 04, 2013 - Privacy, Financial Institutions
Watch What You Tweet: Proposed Social Media Guidance for Financial Institutions
By: Nathan D. Taylor and Julie O'Neill
With the explosive growth of social media, consumers increasingly expect to be able to interact online with the companies from which they buy goods and services. As a result, financial institutions have begun to explore the use of social media, both to strengthen relationships
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February 03, 2013 - Privacy, Employment Law, Litigation
Socially Aware Looks Back: The Social Media Law Year in Review
2012 was a momentous year for social media law. We’ve combed through the court decisions, the legislative initiatives, the regulatory actions and the corporate trends to identify what we believe to be the ten most significant social media law developments of the past year–here
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January 23, 2013 - Trademark, Privacy, Copyright, IP, Litigation
Be Wary of Sharing: Anonymous P2P User’s Motion to Quash Subpoena Denied
By: J. Alexander Lawrence
BitTorrent, the peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing system that enables the quick downloading of large files, has sparked another novel controversy stemming from copyright-infringement claims brought against its users. Users take advantage of the BitTorrent sharing system to anonymously access popular media such as books and
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January 17, 2013 - Privacy, Litigation
Jailbreak: U.S. Google Executives’ Italian Convictions Overturned
On December 21, 2012, the third Milan appeals court acquitted three U.S.-based Google executives who had previously been convicted for breaches of Italian data protection law after Google failed to remove an abusive video from its Google Video site. The video, which showed schoolboys
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January 17, 2013 - Event
Social Media 2013: Addressing Corporate Risks
Social media sites are transforming not only the daily lives of consumers, but also how companies interact with consumers. However, along with the exciting new marketing opportunities presented by social media come challenging new legal issues. In seeking to capitalize on the social media
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January 16, 2013 - Employment Law
Social Media and the National Labor Relations Act: What Employers Need to Know in Drafting and Updating Their Social Media Policies
This article was first published by ALM Media Properties LLC in Internet Law & Strategy (January 2013). For over a year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been taking employers to task for intruding too far into employees’ social media activities. The NLRB’s
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January 10, 2013 - FTC, Privacy
FTC Issues Substantially Revised COPPA Rule, Effective July 1, 2013: Review of Changes and Compliance Tips
By: Julie O'Neill
On December 19, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission (“Commission”) announced long-awaited amendments to its rule implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“Rule”). The changes—which take effect on July 1, 2013—are significant. They alter the scope and obligations of the Rule in a number
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January 08, 2013 - Litigation
Facebook ’em, Danno: Federal Court May Decide Whether Citizens Have First Amendment Right to Use Social Media to Publicly Criticize the Hawaii 5-0
By: Jessica Kaufman
On top of a presidential election, protests over Instagram’s terms of use, and the invention of gloves that can translate sign language, 2012 also brought to light interesting constitutional issues involving public entities’ use of social media when a citizens’ group filed suit against
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December 18, 2012 - FTC, Privacy
FTC Snuffs Out Online “History Sniffing”
By: Julie O'Neill
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has cracked down on a company that was engaged in “history sniffing,” a means of online tracking that digs up information embedded in web browsers to reveal the websites that users have visited. In a proposed settlement with Epic
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December 16, 2012 - Trademark, Section 230 Safe Harbor, IP, Litigation
Google AdWords Decision Highlights Contours of the CDA Section 230 Safe Harbor
In a string of cases against Google, approximately 20 separate plaintiffs have claimed that, through advertisements on its AdWords service, Google engaged in trademark infringement. These claims have been based on Google allowing its advertisers to use their competitors’ trademarks in Google-generated online advertisements.
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