You are here: Home / 2011 / Archives for November 2011

Some Malls Tracking Shoppers Through Their Cell Phones This Holiday Season | PCWorld

November 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For some mall shoppers, Black Friday has become Track Friday.

Thanks to a snoopy piece of tech from a U.K. company called Path Intelligence, some malls in Europe, Australia, and the United States will be tracking shoppers’ movements today through their cell phones.

A small number of discreet monitoring units installed throughout a mall, the company says, can grab signals from consumers’ mobile phones and track their movements with an accuracy of “a few meters.” That information is fed to a processing center where it is audited and analyzed to create a real-time picture of traffic flow through a shopping center. Mall operators can keep constant tabs on the information through Path Intelligence’s secure web-based reporting system.

As you’d expect with someone engaged in this kind of unsettling activity, the company swears it’s committed to protecting the privacy of the people it’s surveilling. “[O]ur detector units do not allow us to obtain your telephone number, to listen to any of your calls, read any SMS messages read or sent by you, or to log details of any calls or SMS messages made or received by you,” Path Intelligence states on its website. “Neither does any of the information received allow us to identify you or any group of individuals.”

Two U.S. malls–Promenade Temecula in Southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va.–will be launching the tracking service today and will use it through New Year’s Day, according to a report by CNN.

via Some Malls Tracking Shoppers Through Their Cell Phones This Holiday Season | PCWorld.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Microsoft: We’ve Had Siri-Like Tech for More Than a Year | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

November 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Is Microsoft jealous of Siri? No, according to chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie, because Microsoft has had its own version of Siri available for over a year.

In an interview with Forbes tech writer Eric Savitz (below), Mundie said Siri probably got so much press because “people are infatuated with Apple.”

Apple is blessed with “good marketing,” but “you could argue that Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows phones for more than a year, since Windows Phone 7 was introduced,” Mundie said.

Microsoft acquired TellMe in early 2007 and the company announced its first app for Windows Mobile in April 2009—a downloadable program that let users dictate text messages, dial phone numbers, or search the Internet by voice.

In August 2010, Microsoft Speech general manager Zig Serafi gave PCMag’s Michael Miller a demo of TellMe on a Windows Phone at the SpeechTek 2010 conference.

“You just press and hold the center button on the bottom of the phone, and you can say things like ‘Start Outlook,’” Miller wrote. “You can go into Bing and say things like ‘Find Italian Restaurants near me.’ Or just say the name of an airline and flight, and get the status.”

Microsoft unveiled its Windows Phone 7 lineup in October 2010, and while the mobile OS, particularly the most recent “Mango” update, has been well-received, the smartphones have yet to fly off the shelves, thanks in large part to competition from Android devices and Apple’s iPhone.

Mundie conceded that “we probably could learn something on the marketing side.” But, he continued, Apple didn’t really have much to offer with the new iPhone, hence the focus on the Siri.

via Microsoft: We’ve Had Siri-Like Tech for More Than a Year | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Microsoft: We’ve Had Siri-Like Tech for More Than a Year | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

November 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Is Microsoft jealous of Siri? No, according to chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie, because Microsoft has had its own version of Siri available for over a year.

In an interview with Forbes tech writer Eric Savitz (below), Mundie said Siri probably got so much press because “people are infatuated with Apple.”

Apple is blessed with “good marketing,” but “you could argue that Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows phones for more than a year, since Windows Phone 7 was introduced,” Mundie said.

Microsoft acquired TellMe in early 2007 and the company announced its first app for Windows Mobile in April 2009—a downloadable program that let users dictate text messages, dial phone numbers, or search the Internet by voice.

In August 2010, Microsoft Speech general manager Zig Serafi gave PCMag’s Michael Miller a demo of TellMe on a Windows Phone at the SpeechTek 2010 conference.

“You just press and hold the center button on the bottom of the phone, and you can say things like ‘Start Outlook,’” Miller wrote. “You can go into Bing and say things like ‘Find Italian Restaurants near me.’ Or just say the name of an airline and flight, and get the status.”

Microsoft unveiled its Windows Phone 7 lineup in October 2010, and while the mobile OS, particularly the most recent “Mango” update, has been well-received, the smartphones have yet to fly off the shelves, thanks in large part to competition from Android devices and Apple’s iPhone.

Mundie conceded that “we probably could learn something on the marketing side.” But, he continued, Apple didn’t really have much to offer with the new iPhone, hence the focus on the Siri.

via Microsoft: We’ve Had Siri-Like Tech for More Than a Year | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Why FCPA Prosecution Risk Has Become Personal

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

There was a time when the U.S. Department of Justice primarily focused its attention on prosecuting companies responsible for bribing foreign officials. Critics of this practice argued that the resulting fines had become just another cost of doing business. So, about eight years ago, the DoJ announced a new strategy of targeting corporate officers and directors for criminal prosecution under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in order to more significantly deter global corporations from engaging in corrupt practices.

If the number of convictions is any indication, the strategy may be paying off: since 2005, dozens of corporate executives have been convicted of violating the FCPA, paid hefty fines from their personal assets, and spent years in prison. (Of course, companies are still the subject of federal agencies’ wrath: the most recent case will result in Pfizer paying more than $60 million to settle FCPA charges, according to the Wall Street Journal.)

Last month, law firm Chadbourne & Parke released a study of the 61 FCPA prosecutions involving individual defendants over the past six years. A surprising number, 35%, of the defendants were the president, chief executive officer, or chief operating officer of their firm. In all, 53 of the individuals charged with violating the FCPA during this period were senior officers — a staggering 87% of all defendants.

These findings should be of concern to corporate executives worldwide. Though the U.K. Bribery Act — which went into effect earlier this year — has captured headlines as a force to be reckoned with, in many ways, the 33-year-old FCPA still reigns supreme in its threat to CEOs and CFOs who do business in the United States.

To understand the potential magnitude, one need look no further than the recent News of the World phone-hacking scandal that has consumed Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. for much of the year. The gravest threat of criminal prosecution facing the Murdochs and other senior executives of News Corp. might come not from British authorities, who would directly oversee the publication, but from the FCPA.

via Why FCPA Prosecution Risk Has Become Personal.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Why FCPA Prosecution Risk Has Become Personal | CFO.com

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

There was a time when the U.S. Department of Justice primarily focused its attention on prosecuting companies responsible for bribing foreign officials. Critics of this practice argued that the resulting fines had become just another cost of doing business. So, about eight years ago, the DoJ announced a new strategy of targeting corporate officers and directors for criminal prosecution under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in order to more significantly deter global corporations from engaging in corrupt practices.

If the number of convictions is any indication, the strategy may be paying off: since 2005, dozens of corporate executives have been convicted of violating the FCPA, paid hefty fines from their personal assets, and spent years in prison. (Of course, companies are still the subject of federal agencies’ wrath: the most recent case will result in Pfizer paying more than $60 million to settle FCPA charges, according to the Wall Street Journal.)

Last month, law firm Chadbourne & Parke released a study of the 61 FCPA prosecutions involving individual defendants over the past six years. A surprising number, 35%, of the defendants were the president, chief executive officer, or chief operating officer of their firm. In all, 53 of the individuals charged with violating the FCPA during this period were senior officers — a staggering 87% of all defendants.

These findings should be of concern to corporate executives worldwide. Though the U.K. Bribery Act — which went into effect earlier this year — has captured headlines as a force to be reckoned with, in many ways, the 33-year-old FCPA still reigns supreme in its threat to CEOs and CFOs who do business in the United States.

To understand the potential magnitude, one need look no further than the recent News of the World phone-hacking scandal that has consumed Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. for much of the year. The gravest threat of criminal prosecution facing the Murdochs and other senior executives of News Corp. might come not from British authorities, who would directly oversee the publication, but from the FCPA.

via Why FCPA Prosecution Risk Has Become Personal.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

In First U.K. Bribery Act Sentencing, Former Court Clerk Handed 6-Year Term | Legal Week

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

former magistrates’ court clerk has become the first person to be sentenced under the U.K. Bribery Act, after he admitted accepting a £500 bribe to “get rid” of a speeding charge.

Munir Patel was sentenced to six years in prison at Southwark Crown Court Friday after last month pleading guilty to bribery and misconduct in public office during his employment as an administrative clerk at London’s Redbridge Magistrates’ Court.

He has been handed a three-year sentence under the Bribery Act and a six-year sentence for misconduct in public office. The two sentences will run concurrently, resulting in six years imprisonment.

Patel accepted the bribe in exchange for omitting to record a traffic offense on a court database and has been prosecuted under Section 2 of the Bribery Act for requesting and receiving a bribe intending to improperly perform his functions, as well as misconduct in public office.

Ashurst dispute resolution partner Angela Pearson said: “The sentencing of Munir Patel for three years for bribery under the new Bribery Act demonstrates the significant sentences that the courts are willing to impose on individuals who commit an offense under the act.

“This is to run concurrently with a six-year sentence for misconduct in a public office. It is only a matter of time before the Serious Fraud Office bares its teeth and prosecutes the first corporate or its directors under the act. In the meantime, the business community collectively hold their breath.”

via In First U.K. Bribery Act Sentencing, Former Court Clerk Handed 6-Year Term.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , ,

A Growing Trend: Use of E-Discovery ‘Special Masters’ | Law Technology News

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The use of e-discovery “special masters” — who help parties frame and execute the discovery of electronically stored information — is a growing trend. At last week’s Georgetown Law Advanced eDiscovery Institute, there were podium discussions about court-related pilot programs as well as informal conversations among attendees about the new job opportunities.

On a Friday panel, Judge Joy Conti of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania outlined a pilot project in progress to help ligitants identify and use special masters. Conti, who chairs the court’s Alternate Dispute Resolution Implementation Committee, said the court decided to create a list of approved special masters. Finalists were selected for the one year pilot effort, that began in May, she explained.

Acccording to the court’s website, a subcommittee, led by Judge Nora Fischer, and including court IT personnel and local practitioners with EDD experience, provided recommendations to the ADR committee, ultimately resulting in approved application and selection criteria. “The final set of criteria approved by the ADR Committee includes active bar admission; demonstrated litigation experience, particularly with electronic discovery; demonstrated training and experience with computers and technology; and mediation training and experience.”

via A Growing Trend: Use of E-Discovery ‘Special Masters’.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

E-Discovery For Defendants Cheat Sheet | Dechert LLP – JDSupra

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

After getting the latest favorable Facebook discovery decision in Largent v. Reed, and seeing that Largent cited to a recent New York case that we didn’t know about, we’ve come to the (probably belated) conclusion that the fast-developing area of e-discovery for defendants with respect to social media maintained by plaintiffs is worthy of a cheat sheet to keep up with the cases as they’ve come down. So here it is – a compilation of all the favorable opinions we’re aware of concerning the right of defendants to take the offensive on e-discovery in personal injury cases, rather than merely having to grin and bear it on the receiving end. As with our other posts of this nature, it’s in purely chronological order, and we’ll update it whenever we learn of additional case law, so if you on the right side of the “v.” win something, feel free to pass it along to us.

By the way, we’ve cited some Canadian cases as well, because, particularly early on, they’ve been cited several times on this side of the border. The citation forms may look unusual to American lawyers, but we’ve tried them out. This is how they appear on WL.

continued @  E-Discovery For Defendants Cheat Sheet | Dechert LLP – JDSupra.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Defending the Use of E-Discovery Software | Law.com

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

There are several good strategies for defending the use of e-discovery software, panelists said last week at the Georgetown Law Center Advanced eDiscovery Institute.

Judges, opposing counsel, and juries may sometimes ask lawyers about the limitations of concept and keyword searching, the extent to which quality control was performed, and the reasons why results aren’t perfect, noted moderator Conor Crowley, of Crowley Law Office in McLean, Va.

Important cases in which software use was defended include Victor Stanley v. Creative Pipe, Disability Rights Council of Greater Washington v. Wash Metropolitan Transit Authority, Gross Construction Association v. American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance, and Datel Holdings v. Microsoft, Crowley said.

One of the best responses is for attorneys to understand and articulate how such technologies work at the process level, the panelists agreed.

That understanding need not extend to technical levels — “I haven’t a clue how the plane works. What I care about is it gets me safely to my destination. Let’s not get so obsessed with how the algorithms work,” attorney Maura Grossman said, of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, in New York. “Frankly, most of us could not understand the answer,” added District Court Judge Elizabeth Laporte, of San Francisco.

via Defending the Use of E-Discovery Software.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Nation’s Densest Network of License Plate Data-Trackers Raises Privacy Concerns | Popular Science

November 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In Washington, D.C., where there are plenty of powerful people and precious places to protect, the cops have lots of high-tech tools at their disposal. But one tool, automatic license plate readers, could become much more than a crime-prevention device. D.C. police maintain the country’s densest network of plate readers, and keep a three-year database of license plate locations — meaning they can track where everyone’s car is, all the time, whether at the grocery store, an ammunition shop or Planned Parenthood.

This can be useful in catching criminals, as a Washington Post feature on the subject points out. In a murder case scheduled for trial last year, police used the plate readers to quickly track down the suspect, after a witness wrote down his license plate number. But what about other uses? The database can track the entirety of private citizens’ comings and goings, something that’s not always the government’s business. And what about third parties, who could potentially access the database? A conversation about these possibilities is still sorely lacking, as the Post points out.

RELATED ARTICLES

Australian Police Want Aerial Surveillance Drones to Track License Plates and Monitor Cars of Interest

VIdeo: LAPD’s New Cruiser Automatically Tracks License Plates and Suspects’ Footprints

Scan Someone’s License Plate and Message Them Instantly with New Bump App

TAGS

Technology, Rebecca Boyle, american civil liberties union, cops, government, license plates, police, privacy, public surveillance, surveillanceThe system includes more than 250 cameras in DC and its suburbs, which capture 1,800 images a minute and download them into an archive, the Post reports. It has more than one license plate reader per square mile, as the American Civil Liberties Union points out. The District keeps the images for three years, much longer than most suburbs, which range from two years to a couple months.

via Nation’s Densest Network of License Plate Data-Trackers Raises Privacy Concerns | Popular Science.

Filed Under: From The News, Tech Bytes Tagged With: ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »