September 3, 2010

7 Reasons Why Your Company Needs a Privacy Policy

Old Phone Dial 150 x 150

Non-attorneys are often (justifiably) baffled at why lawyers take 3,000 words to say what normal people say in 300 and a handshake. At the risk of defending verbosity, it turns out that behind each handshake contains a wide range of non-standard assumptions. Many (if not most) disputes arise when there is a misunderstanding about an [...]

How to Avoid a Legal 500 Error With Your Privacy Policy

500 Legal Error-cropped 150x150

Legal Programming By Aaron Titus I’m an awesome programmer. The only thing keeping me from Python, PHP, or Ruby coding awesomeness is knowledge… and skill… and training… and, um practice. OK, I may not be a Ruby all-star, but I could be if I wanted to. Likewise, you can do anything for yourself that an [...]

The Three Elements of Action

Yawn

Your meeting was supposed to last just 45 minutes, but the first 35 have been devoted to the first agenda item.  Most eyes have glazed over and you are the only one speaking. Just as tired as everyone else you say, “OK, so we all agree that we’re going to do that?” Hearing no objection, [...]

FTC Says Bloggers Must Disclose Freebies

A Closer Look at the Money

by Aaron Titus The FTC recently announced new guidelines requiring bloggers to disclose when they get freebies in exchange for reviews. Adopted by a vote of 4-0, this is the first update of the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising in 29 years. The rules go into effect on December [...]

Privacy Commons for Government

Congress Camp Logo

by Aaron Titus “Unconferences” (hat tip to identitywoman) are great opportunities to network, gather and share information.  They attract bleeding-edge leaders on emerging problems and technologies. My most recent unconference was Congress Camp 2009, organized by the Open Forum Foundation. The gathering focused (broadly) on social networking tools and Web 2.0 for government. It was [...]

Creative Commons for Privacy

Image based on Three Poppies by Federico Ferrari.

Privacy Bar Camp DC by Aaron Titus In late June, 2009 I attended the Privacy Bar Camp DC (Twitter: @PrivacyCampDC) organized by Shaun Dakin with support from the Center for Democracy and Technology, and conducted at the Center for American Progress. I confess that I attended primarily to aid my job search (psst… that was [...]

The Internet in 5 Minutes or Less

Most of us know how to use the internet, without actually understanding how it works. In five minutes, this video gives some of the fundamentals of how the Internet works. Most importantly, the internet is not a fuzzy cloud. The internet is a wire, actually buried in the ground. Computers connected directly to the internet [...]