There has been a lot of buzz recently around net neutrality and what it means for businesses and consumers. Net neutrality effectively means that content providers and ISPs should work together blindly. For example, an ISP like Verizon should not choose to limit bandwidth to or filter Google websites because it wants to charge Google a fee or because it disagrees with a posting slamming Verizon’s pricing on Google Buzz. Vice-versa, Google should not restrict Verizon consumers from visiting its websites or de-prioritize their requests because Google disagrees with a policy of Verizon.
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I have spoken a bit about privacy over the past month and how we are likely to see regulation within the industry. A fellow blogger, Eric Goldman, just published an update about an AOL case related to the public distribution of AOL search data in 2006 that contained sufficient information to be considered personally identifiable. Although the case is just beginning, the court opted to dismiss AOL’s request for judgment on the pleadings, making way for a continued legal battle.
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Unfortunately, not frequently enough do we see headlines highlighting CAN-SPAM lawsuits that end positively for the consumer. Part of the difficulty is that it is very difficult to identify the party responsible for the message. And once in court, it is then difficult to convince judges that tracer routes, WHOIS lookups, redirects, etc. are sufficient proof that the party is indeed the culpable entity.
However, I very much enjoy reading about suits related to false-advertising or deception that do end positively. In this case, the company used From lines that did not clearly identify the sender of the message. It also made misleading statements in the content of the message. As a result, the plaintiff won, and under the CA law, could be awarded $1,000 per message. (article)
On a similar note, many freebie sites got in trouble for deceptive content a few years back. By freebie, I mean sites that said you would receive a $500 gift card, etc. and then forced you to start signing up for a lot of products. The AGs of a number of states took action on those companies which is why, now, there is prominent text that the user will need to sign up for other offers.
A Connecticut resident may not be feeling so lucky today as the behemoth that is Microsoft has filed a $2 MM lawsuit against the person for manipulating Hotmail’s spam filters so that he or she could deliver email to the inbox of Hotmail subscribers.
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Rick Boucher (D-VA) introduced a draft in May that seeks to provide legal guidelines for how business may use and store consumer data. The bill was written broadly, meaning that its application spans more than just behavioral targeting. However, many articles have focused on that subject as it has been a hot-topic as consumers demand more online privacy.
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