Welcome to Socially Aware

Socially Aware is devoted to the law and business of social media, proactively addressing emerging issues and keeping our clients informed of new developments. We cover fields such as artificial intelligence, privacy and data security, Section 230, intellectual property, and much more.

June 16, 2016 - Privacy, Compliance, Litigation
California Court of Appeal Rules That State Attorney General’s Privacy Suit Over Fly Delta Mobile App Is Preempted
In the recently decided People ex rel. Harris v. Delta Air Lines , California’s Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed the dismissal of the State of California’s complaint against Delta Air Lines, Inc., which alleged that the company’s Fly Delta mobile application violated California’s privacy
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June 14, 2016 - E-Commerce, Terms of Use, Litigation
Terms and Conditions Buried in Easily Ignored Scroll Box Don’t Cut It, the Seventh Circuit Holds
By: Aaron P. Rubin
As we have noted before , if you want to increase the likelihood that your website terms of use are enforceable against users, you need to do two things. First, you need to display the terms to users in a conspicuous way, and second,
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June 10, 2016 - Advertising, Digital Content, Endorsement Guides, FTC, Disappearing Content, Fraud, Marketing, Ethics, Compliance
Social Links: Social’s potential to upend the investment industry; online ad fraud; a proposal to fix Twitter
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Social media has upended a number of industries. Is Wall Street next ? Facebook is getting into the video game live-streaming business. Steven Avery’s defense attorney is keeping her 163,000 Twitter followers abreast of her ongoing defense work on behalf of the “Making a Murderer” documentary
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June 02, 2016 - FTC, Big Data, Employment Law, Compliance, Litigation
Big Data Can Lead to Big Legal Problems For Companies
By: Mary Race
Deluged with an unprecedented amount of information available for analysis, companies in just about every industry are discovering increasingly sophisticated ways to make market observations, predictions and evaluations. Big Data can help companies make decisions ranging from which candidates to hire to which consumers
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June 02, 2016 - Digital Content, European Union, Cyberbullying, Disappearing Content, Compliance
Social Links: The rise of social news; how technology hijacks our attention; are websites a dying business?
By: Aaron P. Rubin
In a fascinating, must-read article, a Google design ethicist explains the techniques that engineers and entrepreneurs employ to keep us hooked on the web. A majority of U.S. adults—62%—now get their news on social media. An apartment complex in Utah is trying to force
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May 27, 2016 - Advertising, Internet of Things, FTC, Marketing, Defamation, Litigation
Social Links: Publishers claim ad blockers violate FTC rules; Twitter bags its “buy button”; has the IoT gone too far?
By: Aaron P. Rubin
The Newspaper Association of America has filed a first-of-its-kind complaint with the FTC over certain ad blocking technologies. Is it “Internet” or “internet”? The Associated Press is about to change the capitalization rule. Lots of people criticized Instagram’s new logo, but, according to a
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May 25, 2016 - Labor Law, Employment Law, Compliance
Don’t Worry, Be (Un)Happy: Does U.S. Labor Law Protect a Worker’s Right to a Bad Attitude?
By: Mary Race
A few months ago, we noted that a Yelp employee’s online “ negative review ” of her employer might be protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), given that the National Relations Labor Board (NLRB) has become increasingly aggressive in protecting an
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May 23, 2016 - Advertising, Privacy, Litigation
Will Ad Blockers Kill Online Publishing?
The Internet contains over 4.6 billion Web pages , most of which are accessible for free, making content that we used to have to pay for—news, videos, games—available without having to hand over a credit card number. What makes all of this possible is
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May 20, 2016 - Live streaming, Marketing, Privacy, Section 230 Safe Harbor, Litigation
Social Links—Twitter loosens up; case against Google stands; should millennials be in charge of big social media campaigns?
By: Aaron P. Rubin
Here’s how Twitter is loosening up its 140-character limit. The federal government will now check the social media history of prospective employees before granting them security clearance. One expert says C-level executives shouldn’t entrust millennials with their companies’ social media feeds. Federal court refuses
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May 19, 2016 - Advertising, Digital Content, Endorsement Guides, FTC, Compliance, Online Endorsements
Show Me the Money: Are Social Media Celebrities and Other Online Content Creators Really Raking in the Cash?
Social media has allowed aspiring authors, musicians, filmmakers and other artists to publish their works and develop a fan base without having to wait to be discovered by a publishing house, record label or talent agency. And that seems to have made at least
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Welcome to Socially Aware

California Court of Appeal Rules That State Attorney General’s Privacy Suit Over Fly Delta Mobile App Is Preempted

Terms and Conditions Buried in Easily Ignored Scroll Box Don’t Cut It, the Seventh Circuit Holds

By: Aaron P. Rubin

Social Links: Social’s potential to upend the investment industry; online ad fraud; a proposal to fix Twitter

By: Aaron P. Rubin

Big Data Can Lead to Big Legal Problems For Companies

By: Mary Race

Social Links: The rise of social news; how technology hijacks our attention; are websites a dying business?

By: Aaron P. Rubin

Social Links: Publishers claim ad blockers violate FTC rules; Twitter bags its “buy button”; has the IoT gone too far?

By: Aaron P. Rubin

Don’t Worry, Be (Un)Happy: Does U.S. Labor Law Protect a Worker’s Right to a Bad Attitude?

By: Mary Race

Will Ad Blockers Kill Online Publishing?

Social Links—Twitter loosens up; case against Google stands; should millennials be in charge of big social media campaigns?

By: Aaron P. Rubin

Show Me the Money: Are Social Media Celebrities and Other Online Content Creators Really Raking in the Cash?