Website Accused of Discrimination

Zillow.com, a website that provides free online valuations of residential properties in the United States, has been accused of undervaluing homes located primarily in low-income or minority-populated neighbourhoods. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (the “Coalition”), an umbrella group that organizes local communities against financial institutions believed to be using discriminatory practices, argued that the undervaluation of such homes placed its residents at risk of discriminatory and predatory lending practices. For example, a real estate or lending industry professional may use the estimates provided on Zillow.com to improperly appraise the value of a home, thereby causing the homeowner to borrow more money than necessary. Zillow representatives, however, argued that the accuracy of home valuations vary based on the amount of applicable market data available, and that such data does not include demographic information. They further observed that computers are used to calculate the value of homes, and that the resulting estimates are intended for use by consumers, not industry professionals. The Coalition has sent a complaint letter to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission requesting an investigation into the matter and that Zillow.com be stopped from providing home valuations.

This entry first appeared in the November 30, 2006 edition of lawsof.com. For a copy of the related article, click here.

Corporate Pretexting Personal Info

Pretexting is an investigative technique used primarily by data brokers and independent contractors to obtain various types of personal information, phone records being a prime target. This article discusses issues surrounding the investigative technique, citing real-life ramifications from the Hewlett-Packard board-room scandal and highlighting the evolving state of the law in Canada and the United States as it pertains to protecting personal information from being the target of corporate pretexters.

This article first appeared in the November 17, 2006 issue of The Lawyers Weekly. To download and read the full article, click here (Adobe Reader required).

"Free" File-sharing Case Dismissed

A Spanish court has dismissed a case against a man accused of downloading music from the Internet and then offering the music to others via email and chat rooms, thereby violating Spain’s copyright laws. While the state prosecutor’s office and two music distribution associations in Spain had argued for a two-year prison sentence, the judge in the case observed that there was no profit-motive behind such acts and therefore a penal sanction was not warranted. Specifically, the judge characterized music file-sharing as a socially accepted and widely practiced behaviour, and was concerned that a guilty verdict would imply that music file-sharing for private, non-profit purposes was a crime. The case is likely to be appealed.

This entry first appeared in the November 16, 2006 edition of lawsof.com. For a copy of the related article, click here.

Quebec Ends E-Voting

Quebec’s chief electoral officer has suspended the use of e-voting machines in future municipal elections in the province. A report analyzing the use of the machines in last year’s municipal elections described several related problems: failure to fully test the machines; machines that misread ballots; conflicting vote counts; inadequately trained election staff; delayed results; and a 25 per cent higher cost than traditional voting methods. A representative of a firm that supplied the e-voting machines observed that the problems were partly due to the fact that all of Quebec’s municipal elections were being held on the same day for the first time, and to the popularity of e-voting. Overall, voter confidence was damaged, with many questioning the accuracy of last year’s Quebec election results.

This entry first appeared in the November 2, 2006 edition of lawsof.com. For a copy of the related article, click here.