Valentine Special: Romance Scams Generate Huge Consumer Losses

(February 12, 2019) Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Federal Trade Commission reports that romance scams generated more consumer losses in 2018 than any other consumer fraud. The FTC said in 2018 it received more than 21,000 reports of romance frauds totaling $143 million in losses to consumers, up sharply from losses of $33 […]
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Warrant Request for Biometric Data of All Present Too Broad

(February 3, 2019) Forcing all persons present when a search warrant is executed to unlock their electronic devices using their biometric features violates the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, a U.S. District Court in California found. The governmental agency seeking the warrant was not revealed in the order. The search warrant application was for a residence […]
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Supreme Court Paves Way for Internet Sales Tax Collection

(June 21, 2018) Ecommerce merchants may need to pay sales tax for applicable products sent into states in which they have no presence after the U. S. Supreme Court reversed its long-standing precedent that linked tax payments to a merchant’s physical presence. In the past, the general rule was that, if an online retailer did not […]
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Trump Cannot Block His Critics from Accessing His Twitter Account

(May 23, 2018) Because Donald Trump presents his account as a “Presidential account” and uses it to take actions that can  be made only by a President, his Twitter account is a public forum and he cannot block persons who criticize him and his policies from viewing the account, a federal judge found. However, the […]
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Cloud Usage Up to 97 Percent But Data Theft Still An Issue

(May 16, 2018) The use of cloud services is nearly ubiquitous with 97 percent of worldwide IT professionals surveyed using some type of cloud functions in their organization, a new survey issued by McAfee reports. “Heading directly for the cloud is still the strategy for the majority of organizations worldwide,” the report finds. However, one-in-four […]
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Balough Serves on National Internet of Things Institute Panel

(May 14, 2018) For the second time in its three-year history, the National Institute of the Internet of Things (IoT) welcomed Richard C. Balough as a panelist. The annual two-day institute in Washington, D.C. is sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Section of Science & Technology Law. Mr. Balough participated in a panel discussion of […]
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