By: John Garrasi Earlier this month, Apple was fined almost two billion dollars by the European Commission over restrictions placed on App Store access to third parties. At the same time, an U.S. judge ruled that Alphabet’s Google would not be saved from having to face claims of monopolization in the online ad business.… Read More Finally: Antitrust’s Unstoppable Force Meets Big Tech’s Immovable Object
By: Grayson Barlow Every day, we effortlessly send texts to friends across the world, plot our next overseas adventure, and join video calls with international colleagues. Yet, few are aware of the intricate network of undersea cables that form the backbone of our global communication system. These cables transmit vast quantities of data beneath the… Read More From Isolation to Integration: The South Pacific’s Connectivity Revolution
By: Allison Nickerson Functioning in the era of the internet requires daily use of technology. Increasing use of the internet leaves users’ private information increasingly susceptible to use by websites visited. The lack of comprehensive law regulating and protecting internet privacy resulted in a patchwork of federal and state laws attempting to protect users. This lack of… Read More Is Google Protecting Your Privacy?
By: Douglas DeBettencourt The antitrust lawsuits are beginning to pile up against Google, which has led to many e-discovery problems surrounding Google’s chat deletion policy. Google has a policy in place that provides that their employees’ chats are to be deleted after twenty-four hours. Although Google may be forced to pay significant fines surrounding these… Read More Take It or Leave It: How Google’s Antitrust Lawsuit Could Serve as Guidance for Other Companies
By: Elliot Hangos The role technology can play in assisting disaster sites is astronomical, especially when considering the millions of lives impacted by the 2,018 natural disasters since 2010. Thus, new technology efforts have been made in recent years to better address disaster relief efforts, such as: the use of robots and drones, the implementation… Read More Legal and Technological Resolutions for Disaster Relief
Facebook announced earlier this month that it would lift its self-imposed ban on political advertising, put in place following the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. The social media giant stated that it would again run promotional advertisements on “social issues, elections or politics” but noted that advertisers would be subject to authorization and identity checks. Facebook was not the only company to institute such restrictions, Google put a similar ban in place, and announced that it was lifted in February. The bans sparked widespread critiques, but lifting the bans raises another set of questions entirely: Has anything changed? What did these bans really do to stop the spread of misinformation?… Read More Facebook Lifts Ban on Political Ads: Has Anything Changed?
Discussing the creation of the first union for workers employed by Alphabet, Inc. and what events led to this unionization. Also looking at the current ethical and political issues that the union is concerned about when it comes to how Alphabet has dealt with them. … Read More Google Plays Defense as Unionization Makes its First Play for Power in Silicon Valley
In order to decrease the spread of false information in relation to the election on November 3, 2020, several social media platforms took measures to censor any misleading information. While the First Amendment protects the freedom of speech, private companies such as social media platforms do not fall under the First Amendment due to their nongovernmental status. Thus, they are allowed to censor what is posted.… Read More 2020 Election: What Social Media Platforms are Doing to Stop the Spread of Fake Results
This blog discusses the potential consequences of the Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision in Google v. Oracle, the culmination of a series of lawsuits that began in 2010. The suit considers the potential copyrightability of an application programming interface (API), a system regarded in the tech world as crucial to software and application development. Should the Court rule in favor of Oracle, the tech industry can expect the emergence of a much more competitive landscape. … Read More Google v. Oracle: The Ten-Year Tech Battle
An attempt by Epic Games (“Epic”) to circumvent a 30% revenue cut to both Apple and Google has backfired. Epic’s popular game Fortnite has been removed from Apple’s App Store (“App Store”) and Google’s Google Play Store (“Play Store”). The removal from both stores will leave millions of mobile players without the ability to play or update Fortnite. … Read More Defying Authority: The Repercussions of Epic Games Overlooking App Store Policies.
By William Raven “Google was the original gateway to the web. I’m here today to speak about how Google betrayed the web” stated Yelp policy head Luther Lowe at a Senate hearing on digital platforms focusing on anticompetitive practices. “Google physically demoted non-Google results even if they contained information with higher quality scores” further claimed… Read More Monetary Fines and Monopolization: The Case for More Aggressive Anti-Trust Measures in the World of Tech
Discussion on Google’s US Court ruling that a Canadian Ruling Requiring Google to Delist a website was Unenforceable And Violated Free Speech. … Read More Canadian Court Applies the Right to Be Forgotten Remedy to Intellectual Property Matters and In Order to Not Enforce the Ruling, Google Files a Lawsuit in U.S. in an Attempt to Get an Injunction Against the Canadian Order
Fake news has been spreading through our social media news feeds for years, but social media sites have begun to see the harsh consequences of these unregulated deceptive posts. Recent events such as the 2016 presidential election and the Las Vegas shooting have sparked interest of the spread of fake news in not only the eyes of politicians and platform creators, but also the public at large. … Read More Should We Trust the News Reported on Social Media?
POSTED BY Briana Polan In today’s world, our cell phones are our lifelines. In addition to making calls, these little mini-computers contain our contacts, call lists, calendar information, text information, Internet searches, music library, camera and photo library, and more. In response to the growing use of cell phones, phone manufactures have given owners tools… Read More Privacy Rights vs. Quality Law Enforcement
POSTED BY Carolyn Kenniston How many times a day do you hear the phrase “Google it”? Whether it be researching a potential restaurant or potential date, people are using Google to get information on a broad spectrum of topics. But what happens when lawyers use Google to search potential jurors during the voir dire process? In… Read More “Googling” Jurors During Voir Dire: Helpful or Harmful?
POSTED BY Natasha Meserve Recently, Google, the famous search engine, has dealt with international issues, notably with its Autocomplete feature. This serious issue might potentially hold Google accountable for libel lawsuits regarding certain companies and people. More specifically, ones that are searched for and have certain potentially libelous words associated with its name. Google’s Autocomplete… Read More Potential Libel Action Against Google For The Autocomplete Feature
POSTED BY Bridget Sarpu The “right to be forgotten” is a concept that has been discussed heavily in the European Union (EU). Recently, the privacy right is a hot topic and tackles the issue of whether an individual has the right to request that his or her personal data be removed from accessibility via a… Read More Embarrassing Photo? Criminal Record? Negative Press? Europe’s Right to Be Forgotten may Delink Those Stories but not without a Battle From Google Inc.
POSTED BY Jared Bishop Google has a serious issue on their hands with regards to wiretapping of Gmail users. However, any hope that consumers had against taking down the monstrous enterprise of Google was likely shot down in a decision by Judge Lucy Koh. Judge Koh, a United States District Judge for the Northern District… Read More Google Lawsuit Denied Class Action Status
POSTED BY Abner Pinedo YouTube is an efficient video sharing website owned by Google. It is known as the second largest search engine in the world. It is easy for just about anyone to upload any kind of media online nowadays. People use it for, including but not limited to, streaming music, television shows, tutorials,… Read More YouTube Matures Over Long Seven-Year Litigation Against Viacom
POSTED BY Abner Pinedo Imagine a scenario where a blind man is operating a vehicle by himself on a freeway and is able to arrive safely to his destination. This far-fetched scenario only once imagined in Sci-Fi films is one of many possibilities that Google Inc. illustrates as possible in a YouTube video they posted… Read More Autonomous Vehicles are the Future or Not?