| Volume 102 Number 1 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
As a general rule, a business is not liable for a slip and fall injury simply because it owns the property where the injury occurred. For the business to be responsible the injured person must show the business was "negligent" and that is why the injury happened. For example, if the business knew there was a slippery spot on the floor and did not take reasonable steps to clean it up, it would be liable to a customer who was injured as a result of its negligence.
For more general information about the law, check out my website.
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Apple Denies Breach After Data Leaks
This weekend, a number of celebrities found that sensitive personal data had leaked to the Internet. In every instance, the data was obtained from Apple's cloud-computing service, iCloud, without permission.
The hacking became a major news item very quickly, leaving Apple users to ask - "Could this happen to me?"
The answer is - "Yes!"
According to Apple, the hackers did not exploit a back door to breach the system. Instead, Apple categorized the incidents are targeted hacks aimed at specific individuals. Apple's statement stopped short of explaining how the leaks actually occurred.
As it turns out, just about anyone can access your iCloud account using a method hackers call "brute force." Simply put, hackers use software that will guess iCloud account credentials until a password has been successfully cracked. Then, using a cloning software, hackers can download the entire contents of a user's iCloud account.
Can you protect yourself against iCloud hackers?
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The Meaning of Your Credit Card Number
Why are credit card numbers so long? What do the numbers mean?
When you call your credit card company to inquire about a bill or challenge a charge, the representative will usually ask you to identify the account by the last four or five numbers. But what about the rest? If you have to buy goods and services using the entire credit card number, how does you credit card company bypass the rest of the numbers when accessing your account?
The Consumerist has the answer and breaks it all down. The first number identifies the type of card you're using. For instance, Visa cards start with "4," MasterCard accounts start with "5," and Discover cards start with "6." The next series of numbers identify the type of card you're using.
So, what does this mean for you? How could this information be used to commit credit card theft?
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More Fights Over Reclining Seats
For the third time in two weeks, a flight had to be diverted after a passenger argument erupted over reclining a seat. This time, Delta Flight 2370 from New York to West Palm Beach, Florida was grounded in Jacksonville, Florida. According to other passengers on the flight, a passenger on board became irate when the woman in front of her attempted to recline her seat.
Grounding a plane is no small event. When a passenger creates a disruption on board a plane, the passenger could be prosecuted in federal court for a variety of potential offenses.
Will the major airlines do anything to improve passenger comfort?
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Your Money
Should I lease or buy equipment?
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For the Lawyers
Website’s terms of use unenforceable when consumer lacks reasonable notice.
The Ninth Circuit held that a website user was not bound by terms available via a link at the bottom of a website, where the user was not required to check a box agreeing to the terms and was not given reasonable notice that the terms were there. The court rejected an argument that the "terms" link was "close enough" to other key content that the user should have clicked on it.
The court held:
[W]here a website makes its terms of use available via a conspicuous hyperlink on every page of the website but otherwise provides no notice to users nor prompts them to take any affirmative action to demonstrate assent, even close proximity of the hyperlink to relevant buttons users must click on—without more—is insufficient to give rise to constructive notice. . . . [C]consumers cannot be expected to ferret out hyperlinks to terms and conditions to which they have no reason to suspect they will be bound.
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