A common theme in my blog is that there’s just too much damned information out there about people and the various privacy concerns that it raises.  Of course, it’s hard to point the finger when people themselves foolishly contribute to the daily onslaught of information.  Facebook, like many other social networking sites, has become a clearinghouse for stupidity over the past few years and it seems like there’s no end in sight.

Take the case of Betsy Ramsdale, a teacher in Wisconisn.  It seems that Ramsdale couldn’t resist the urge of taking a picture of herself pointing a gun at the camera.  Kids, make sure you get your homework in on time!  (And no mistakes!) 

While it doesn’t appear that there was any malicious intent on her part, you have to wonder in this age of school shootings what she could have possibly been thinking.  She’s been a teacher for over a decade.  Ramsdale was placed on administrative leave while the school investigates.

This is just another cautionary Facebook tale.  There will be many others in the not-too-distant future.  If you must include potentially controversial or questionable pictures in your Facebook profile, it’s best to keep your profile private and only share it with friends you know and trust. 

Of course, there’s still no guarantee that even controversial photographs won’t be disseminated outside your network.  All it takes is one friend with a “you-gotta-see-this” mentality who sends it to somebody else and the next thing you know, it’s a news story.  So, when in doubt, just leave it out!

Does the flood of information ever end?  Do we have to know everything about everyone—in real time?  While location-tracking software is not new (well, not too new, anyway), Google’s expected move into this market only further reinforces Scott McNealy’s eerily prophetic saying, “You have zero privacy anyway.  Get over it.”  But now when you “get over it,” all of your friends will be able to see exactly where you were and when.

Google just launched its Latitude software that lets mobile phone users share their mapped location with their network of contacts—if they so choose.  This is nothing new, per se, given the existence of other companies such as Loopt, BrightKite, and Dopplr (for example), as well as most people’s familiarity with GPS, but Google’s entry into the marketplace provides further evidence that the technology is becoming even more widespread.  Maybe too much so.  But when the 800 pound gorilla talks, everyone listens.

According to the article, Google “hopes it will help people find each other while out and about and keep track of loved ones.”  Those are helpful and noble intentions.  What parents wouldn’t want to know where their teenagers are?  Or be able to direct a lost friend to your precise location?  But hope is a fickle thing.  And what Google hopes for and how Latitude will actually be used are two entirely different things.  We all know what the road to hell is paved with.  Lawyers make their living off of it (more on that in a moment).

Google requires that people expressly sign-up for the service and gives them the opportunity to tailor their preferences as to who they can share their location with, as well as the type of information shared.  While that gives the user some degree of control, it’s probably only a matter of time before a bored 16 year-old in hacks into the system and tracks people. 

Even if this doesn’t occur anytime soon, a disgruntled ex-husband may be able to track his ex-wife who forgot to take him out of her “network.”  While entire companies have sprung-up offering this type of GPS-based (and typically illegal) service, now a person can do so without any special equipment whatsoever.  Just a little bit of software and a forgetful spouse.  It goes without saying that stalking is a very real problem in this digital age and tools that used to be available only to law enforcement are becoming increasingly more common.

The fact that such software is even available is part of the larger privacy debate that will be with us for quite some time.  There are no easy answers in a society that never seems to have enough information about others.  Yet from a litigation perspective, few people may realize that all of this location data is stored by a provider for varying degrees of time and subject to subpoena and disclosure in the proper circumstances. 

Thus, in criminal or civil cases where a person’s time and location is an issue, it provides yet one more tool for lawyers to pursue when representing their clients.  Just ask those divorce attorneys in Massachusetts and elsewhere about getting all of that “E-Z Pass” toll information to discover cheating spouses.  Modern convenience has its costs.

So the age old Perry Mason question, “Where were you on February 4, 2009?” now becomes, “Why were you on the corner of 53rd and 7th Avenue at 3:12 p.m. on February 4, 2009?”  And while it may—may—help lawyers such as myself get to the truth faster in a courtroom, the human part of me (and yes, that still exists) finds it it to be unsettling.  So bad grammar aside, the question, ”Where you at?” now becomes, “Why you there?”  Ah technology . . . .

Actually, this post is really about those brave souls who decide to sue the IRS, one of the most powerful agencies there ever was.  While I was in law school (which seems like a long time ago), I took a tax law class to learn a little bit—and I do mean a little bit—about tax law and our complicated tax code.  Here’s what I took away from the class: (1) I didn’t want to be a tax lawyer; and (2) Don’t mess with the IRS.  Duh.

While this blog usually addresses various legal issues in technology-related matters, I also like to address those brave souls who go the distance in litigation—especially against a government agency.  That is no easy task.  As someone who often finds himself in court and has fought agencies in the past, I found this brief article to be interesting, although not very surprising.   

It highlights the 10 most litigated tax issues and the less-than-optimistic results.  A few of the areas addresssed in the article include gross income, summons enforcement, deductibility of trade/business expenses, family status issues, and penalties for failure to file.  While only a relative handful of cases in each area went all the way through to the end, the amount of time a taxpayer won fully in 8 of the areas ranged from 0% (you can’t get lower than that) to a whopping 10%.  The taxpayer prevailed in issues involving the joint liability of spouses and penalties involving frivolous litigation 24% to 31% of the time.  This is only slightly more encouraging.

The article only discusses those cases that are litigated from start to finish.  It makes no mention of the many cases that, in all likelihood, settled at some point along the way.  Still, I applaud those individuals who do take a stand.  It was an expensive one to be sure, but they did it.  Agencies of all types and sizes usually (but not always) have little to lose by going the distance.  Most people will either tire or be unable to keep paying their lawyers to fight.  And for that select group taxpayers who did prevail, I especially salute you.  Sometimes, you just gotta do what you think is right.  What could be more American than that?

It will only be a matter of time (if it hasn’t happened already), until someone gets his/her employer in trouble for using Twitter, the latest social networking and “microblogging” craze.  (Does it ever end?)  As if the well-known dangers of e-mailing haven’t been documented enough over the years—and have been a boon to litigators—Twitter may soon up the ante.

The issues are really no different than those that have already surfaced with e-mails.  Issues involving privacy, confidentiality, defamation, sexual harassment, discrimination, and copyright infringement (to name a few potential problem areas) have been well-litigated over the years.  By now, most employers hopefully have a formal e-mailing and internet usage policy in place for their employees to follow.  Instilling a healthy sense of fear never hurts.  

So how much harm can someone do with 140 characters or less on Twitter?   As a lawyer, I’ve learned never to underestimate the ability of clients to get themselves in all sorts of trouble.  As with texting, it’s only a matter of time before we all read about some clueless employee who gets him/herself fired and puts the employer in legal hot water.  And of course, it’s only a matter of time before lawyers start subpoening these types of electronic communications also.  Just because a message is only a few characters long doesn’t mean that it won’t be stored and saved—possibly forever.

But as noted by one commentator in the article linked-to above, Twitter messages are “quick sound bites and instantaneous” and “aren’t the most well-thought out.”  Someone who is upset, angry, or frustrated could easily use poor judgment and—in a few characters or less—wreak all sorts of havoc on his/her employer.  And once it ends up in the Twitter universe, it’s there for all to see . . . again and again and again.

Needless to say, an employer’s e-mail and internet usage policy should be specifically updated to account for services such as Twitter.  Employees must understand that even very short messages (designed for the inner ADD child who seems to live in all of us these days) can create liability.  Not that it will stop everyone, but it will stop some people.  And the ones it doesn’t stop?  Well, I’m just a “tweet” away!