Justice Scalia, Privacy, and the Fordham Dossier

Above the Law reports on Justice Scalia's reaction to the 15 page dossier on him compiled by the students in Fordham Law Prof. Joel Reidenberg's privacy seminar. Reidenberg usually has his students compile information about him available from free, public sources. This year, after remarks made by Justice Scalia on the issue of privacy, Reidenberg decided to use Scalia as the focus of the students' assignment. Read the postings on this topic and Justice Scalia's response here.

Court Orders Halt to Sale of Spyware

As reported in the November 17, 2008 news release by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the U.S. District Court Judge, following the EPIC complaint, has issued a temporary restraining order halting the sale of keylogger spyware. According to the FTC's complaint,

...the Florida-based CyberSpy software, LLC marketed and sold RemoteSpy keylogger spyware to clients who would then secretly monitor unsuspecting consumer's computers.

... the defendants violated the FTC Act by engaging in the unfair advertising and selling of software that could be: (1) deployed remotely by someone other than the owner or authorized user of a computer; (2) installed without the knowledge and consent of the owner or authorized user; and (3) used to surreptitiously collect and disclose personal information.

The FTC seeks to permanently bar the unfair and deceptive practices and require the defendants to give up their ill-gotten gains. The complaint for permanent injunction and other equitable relief is available here.