E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of November 26, 2007

In 2005, 8.3 million Americans were victims of identity theft but more than half of the victims suffered no out-of-pocket losses.

(Link: 8.3 million Americans victims of ID theft at washingtonpost.com)

"The Universal Digital Library, a book-scanning project backed by several major libraries across the globe, has completed the digitization of 1.5 million books and on Tuesday made them free and publicly available."

(Link: Online library offers 1.5 million works and counting at CNET News)

Many Facebook users are complaining about the social networking site’s new advertising program that publishes their online purchasing history. The program, launched in early November, gives the user two opportunities to "opt out" of the program and prevent his or her recent purchases from being displayed to Facebook friends. Early on, a technical problem prevented one of the opt out messages from being displayed and many users simply didn’t notice the other. Facebook says that it has repaired the glitch but many users are still bothered by what they characterize as an invasion of privacy.

(Links: Users decry Facebook tracking and Facebook fixes ad-sharing glitch at SiliconValley.com)

E-Commerce Law Briefs is a weekly feature appearing each Friday afternoon on E-Commerce Law. Each week, E-Commerce Law Briefs will provide a brief summary and commentary on recent legal news affecting e-commerce businesses.