Over the last 24 hours, millions of Americans have just come to realize that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon customers. The response, at least of those who enjoy the liberty of being online to voice their opinion, has...

California's Attorney General Kamala Harris addressed mobile developers on Wednesday morning regarding mobile application privacy and her offices' commitment to consumer privacy at The Future of Privacy+Innovation: A Workshop for App Developers in San Francisco. While the Attorney General has made it clear that consumer protection and application...

Prior to the State of the Union address this evening, the White House issued an Executive Order addressing cybersecurity, Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity. The rumored order had been awaited by many wondering what the White House's plan regarding cybersecurity would be in the wake of the...

Within the last month, the Federal Trade Commission, along with a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, have brought to the fore the issues of patent enforcement and appropriate patent licensing schemes. While many thought the FTC's review of Google's practices...

On Thursday, California's Attorney General Kamala Harris released new guidelines targeted at mobile application developers to ensure consumer awareness of these developer's privacy and data practices. This step is just one of several that have been taken by California's Office of the Attorney General in the last year to bring...

A variety of notable patent cases have filled our legal hearts and minds, though not our consumer pockets, in 2012. Outside of the technology industry, many consumers are familiar with what have become "epic" legal battles between companies like Apple and Samsung. I am sure there is an apropos Game...

Yesterday, the buzz began around Instagram's Terms of Use changes that will take place effective January 16, 2013. For an application that is "all about me," the policies certainly make it all about them.

The changes are numerous and seem fairly atrocious to those who care about and...

As millions of Americans rush to buy gifts this holiday season, with a big emphasis on consumer electronics as a primary purchase for the young and old alike, it is probably safe to assume that most people are not focused on the patent licensing infrastructure that allows those consumer electronics...

Hours before the second night of the 2012 Republican National Convention hits primetime, the Obama campaign appears to have orchestrated an impressive play to steal the spotlight from Mitt Romney and the convention: hosting an "AMA" (ask me anything) on Reddit. With a verification photo of himself in tow, appropriately...

This election cycle has worn on the nerves of even the biggest political junkies among us, so I do not have to imagine what it has done to the general public. We are just on the cusp of the general election, and the day's news cycle is revolving around a...

It would have been hard to miss the deal read about around the Internet yesterday: Facebook's buying Instagram for $1 billion dollars. The comments around the deal have largely centered around the valuation amount, arguably inflated, and the pending doom of the often talked about "bubble" in Silicon...

Signed into law last week by President Obama, the JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act) is heralded as a measure set to revolutionize how startup companies, investors (experienced and novice), the SEC and Wall Street will be able to interact in the investment world. The Act's most...

Handed down yesterday, the United States Supreme Court's unanimous decision in United States v. Jones was certainly a win for Fourth Amendment privacy advocates. The case dealt with warrantless searches and GPS tracking devices. The court found that the government installing such a GPS system in a vehicle...

On the morning of a critical day of Internet action whose underpinnings find themselves in the First Amendment and the state of copyright law in the United States, the Supreme Court issued its decision in the public domain works copyright case Golan v. Holder.

Golan involved works that...

It is probably not lost on many people who use Twitter or Facebook, read blogs or do virtually anything on the Internet that today is a day of action for many companies and individuals online against disastrous copyright legislation like the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP...

On Sunday, the New York Times featured an article "The New Digital Divide," which discussed the lack of access to high-speed Internet for many Americans. High-speed Internet access is still a luxury to many, and in a world where the technology industry is building for the fastest speeds,...

As a proud alumna of the University of California, Irvine, and former student government officer, I am appalled at the actions that have taken place against students at UC Berkeley and, most recently, UC Davis, over the last two weeks.

The University of California campuses have a long history with...

Much debate has arisen over both SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act introduced in the House, and its corollary in the Senate, the PROTECT IP Act. Social networks have activated their users to contact members of Congress, prominent technology advocacy organizations have voiced their opposition and a call to "virtual...

The conversation around data management and user privacy has largely centered around corporate responsibility. A week ago, at ITU Telecom World, an annual conference of the International Telecommunications Union, an agency of the United Nations, the discussion turned to the responsibility of regulators and, in fact, the need...

The beginning of today's Web 2.0 Summit, focusing on big data and, appropriately themed, "The Data Frame," was kicked off in a conversation with Spotify founder and Facebook shareholder Sean Parker. The specter in the room, regulation of social network platforms and their treatment of user data, was...