News Items
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Opera Web Browser Introduces Free Virtual Private Network (VPN) Connection
10/20/2016 - 19:22By Mark Rosch Anyone using public wi-fi hotspots to connect to the Internet should be concerned about the security and privacy of the information they are sending back and forth over those connections. There are many security options you can employ to better-insure that privacy and security - like using services that encrypt your data in transit or Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). For many...
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Yahoo Urges U.S. Government to Release Information Regarding E-Mail Surveillance
10/20/2016 - 17:43In a letter posted to its Global Public Policy Blog, Yahoo "demands transparency from the Director of National Intelligence" to "provide [US] citizens with clarification around national security orders they issue to internet companies to obtain user data." "While the letter makes specific reference to recent allegations against Yahoo, it is intended to set a...
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Google Kills Hangouts On Air
09/04/2016 - 17:49Google is apparently discontinuing the public "Hangouts On Air" feature. Hangouts On Air allowed users to broadcast a video stream (lecture, presentation, performance, or other event) and make it accessible to anyone with the URL. Public streaming of events will still be available via Google's YouTube Live feature. The change is part of Google's strategy to target Hangouts...
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Google Introduces New Email Security Warning in Gmail
09/04/2016 - 14:37Most of you know that when Google detects "spam" messages, Google flags them as "Spam," and automatically moves them into a separate Spam folder, bypassing your Inbox completely. You may have also noticed that Google displays an "exclamation point: in place of the sender's picture or avatar in the upper left-hand corner of the message as a visual flag. Now, Google...
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Facebook Kills Off Name Search
05/27/2016 - 16:34After many years of hiding the search page where you could search Facebook for a user by name without being logged into an account, Facebook has finally killed the feature off. For many years, searchers could use the search form at https://www.facebook.com/srch.php to perform a name search through the Facebook user database – even if the searcher wasn’t logged into their own...
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Oracle v. Google: The Social Media Research Ban
05/26/2016 - 16:47In a verdict handed down Thursday, May 26, 2016, jurors found that Google’s use of basic elements of the Java programming language to build its Android mobile operating system was a fair use under federal copyright law. While this is an important case in the fair use/copyright milieu, an earlier order by Judge Alsup is nearly as important to those following juror social media research...
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Legal Ethics Considerations for Lawyers' Use of Cloud Computing Services
04/14/2016 - 09:49We often get questions about the security of "cloud computing" services like Google Apps and whether that security is tight enough for lawyers to use them. Google Apps, for example, meets the security standards put in place for the online storage of government agencies' information set out in the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2000 (FISMA 44 U.S.C. § 3541, et...
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Google Kills Blogsearch (Again) - But This Time They REALLY Mean It
03/28/2016 - 14:01We have previously written about Google's move to integrate its BlogSearch results into its already existing NewsSearch results. At that time, we identified a work-around that would allow you to retrieve Blog-only results from the BlogSearch database's previous incarnation. Google recently discontinued access to that work-around - killing BlogSearch once and for all. Results from blogs...
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Bench Reporter Archives California Tentative Rulings Into a Searchable Database
03/09/2016 - 11:45California lawyers will be interested to learn about a new site, Bench Reporter, which archives thousands of Superior Court Tentative Rulings (primarily from Los Angeles County). Tentative Rulings were introduced in the 1960s in Los Angeles. They later expanded to other counties. Judges are not required to use Tentative Rulings. (See California Rule of Court 3.1308 to learn what procedure your...
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Google Expands Translate Service to 103 Languages
03/08/2016 - 21:41Google has added 13 additional languages to its Google Translate service. This brings the total number of languages Google Translate can translate into or out of to 103. Google claims that with this addition will, "help bring a combined 120 million new people to the billions who can already communicate with Translate all over the world." Google also claims that with these...