On August 25, 2011, the Massachusetts Appeals Court, in a case of first impression, ruled that the state crime lab’s retention of an individual’s DNA sample beyond the limitations promised to him by the police when they took the voluntary sample state a claim for invasion of privacy, and for violation of the state’s Fair Information Practices Act (“FIPA”). The case, Amato v. District Attorney, No. 10-P-354 (Mass. Ct. App. Aug. 25, 2011), is a significant win for privacy advocates and the Firm. Proskauer partner Mark Batten and former associate Sandra Badin handled the matter with assistance from the Firm’s pro bono partner, the ACLU.

Several Google executives, including the Company’s global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, will face criminal charges in Italian court stemming from Italian authorities’ two-year investigation of a video posted on Google Video showing a disabled teen being taunted by classmates. The video, posted in 2006, depicts four high school boys in a Turin classroom taunting a classmate with Down syndrome and ultimately hitting the young man over the head with a box of tissues. Google removed the video on November 7, 2006, less than twenty-four hours after receiving multiple complaints about the video. Nonetheless, Fleischer and his Google colleagues face criminal charges of defamation and failure to exercise control over personal information that carry a maximum sentence of three (3) years.

A U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida recently issued a preliminary injunction ordering CyberSpy Software, LLC to stop promoting and selling “RemoteSpy,” a keylogger software program that, once installed on a computer, collects information regarding use of the computer.