--- Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 11:00:52 -0500 To: declanat_private From: Chris Hoofnagle <souvarineat_private> Subject: Amy Boyer Decision Released Hi Declan, The NH Supreme Court just ruled on five questions of law that will be very important for the privacy landscape. You probably remember that this lawsuit is a civil action against the private investigators who sold Amy Boyer's personal info to a stalker, who then used it to locate and kill Boyer. This case is going to be very important in the national debate on credit reporting agencies, preemption, and regulation of SSNs. The fact of the matter is that better law is coming out of the states than Congress. *Holds that pretext calling violates the state's consumer protection laws. *Adopts the appropriation tort for the state. *Holds that info brokers and private investigators can be liable for the foreseeable harms that may occur from the sale of personal information. *Holds that obtaining a SSN from a CRA could constitute intrusion upon seclusion. The case now goes back to the federal district court where the merits will be heard. Decision: http://www.courts.state.nh.us/supreme/opinions/2003/remsb017.htm EPIC's brief: http://www.epic.org/privacy/boyer/brief.html EPIC Amy Boyer Page: http://www.epic.org/privacy/boyer/ Much praise should go to David Gottesman for litigating this case with expert skill! C ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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