Holly Towle wrote an excellent article on the boilerplate contract language issues that might now exist in your contract language. Read the article… consider the issues… review your templates. Make some changes. Of course, you can always just call me and I’d be happy to review your contracts for you. 😉
It happens to be my birthday weekend and between eating some great food, playing Guitar Hero with my wife and hanging with the family, these are the things that happened around the web this week – maybe you already read about them, maybe you need to again – there were some REALLY great discussions going on. Come join the party on twitter (follow me here and you’ll join the conversation live.)
I also realized that many of you might have no idea what you’re seeing below. Sorry. These are “tweets”, 140 maximum character messages sent via Twitter. Within the Twitterverse individual users follow others and have followers (think of it like overlapping Venn diagram circles). To read a tweet, you have to wade through a bit of jargon used to make the most of the 140 character limitation. “RT” for example, is shorthand for “Re-tweet” and the @____ is the username of some other individual on Twitter. Combined together, then, “RT @_____” means that someone else wrote a tweet that I found important and I now want to forward along to my followers. The URL’s are then also shortened by shortening services like bit.ly to make the most of the character limitation, too. Lastly, you might see “hash” identifiers “#______” which are ways to tag tweets of a particular flavor for easy searching later and “<” which means that I am commenting on what came before it.
The things that happened around the web this week – maybe you already read about them, maybe you need to again.
I also realized that many of you might have no idea what you’re seeing below. Sorry. These are “tweets”, 140 maximum character messages sent via Twitter. Within the Twitterverse individual users follow others and have followers (think of it like overlapping Venn diagram circles). To read a tweet, you have to wade through a bit of jargon used to make the most of the 140 character limitation. “RT” for example, is shorthand for “Re-tweet” and the @____ is the username of some other individual on Twitter. Combined together, then, “RT @_____” means that someone else wrote a tweet that I found important and I now want to forward along to my followers. The URL’s are then also shortened by shortening services like bit.ly to make the most of the character limitation, too. Lastly, you might see “hash” identifiers “#______” which are ways to tag tweets of a particular flavor for easy searching later and “<” which means that I am commenting on what came before it.
The things that happened around the web this week – maybe you already read about them, maybe you need to again.
I also realized that many of you might have no idea what you’re seeing below. Sorry. These are “tweets”, 140 maximum character messages sent via Twitter. Within the Twitterverse individual users follow others and have followers (think of it like overlapping Venn diagram circles). To read a tweet, you have to wade through a bit of jargon used to make the most of the 140 character limitation. “RT” for example, is shorthand for “Re-tweet” and the @____ is the username of some other individual on Twitter. Combined together, then, “RT @_____” means that someone else wrote a tweet that I found important and I now want to forward along to my followers. The URL’s are then also shortened by shortening services like bit.ly to make the most of the character limitation, too. Lastly, you might see “hash” identifiers “#______” which are ways to tag tweets of a particular flavor for easy searching later.
When Clear announced their intent to terminate operations, the big question was: “What’s going to happen to each users’ private data (things like, um, fingerprints and background checks)?”
Now we know. They intend to SELL IT! This is why I harp on making sure that you have the proper provisions in your contract(s) for confidentiality, indemnification, information security and limitation of liability
To Clear’s credit, they are saying that they’re going to continue to comply with their pre-existing privacy policy – and that the data can only be sold to another TSA-approved traveler program. But what if that program is run by an organization you wouldn’t want to have your personal details?*
Interestingly enough, however, this violates the terms of that agreement (as it existed when I pulled it from flyclear.com on June 29, 2009) – boldings are mine:
3. ADDITIONAL LIMITATIONS ON APPLICANT AND MEMBER PERSONAL INFORMATION
A. We do not sell or give lists or compilations of the personal information of our members or applicants to any business or non-profit organization. We do not provide member or applicant personal information to any affiliated or non-affiliated organizations for marketing.
B. None of the information that we collect may be used for any purpose outside the operation and maintenance of the Clear Services.
C. We would only disclose personal information about members or applicants if required to do so by law or legal process.
The termination of operation might be considered a “legal process” – but the way the language is written, 3.C. would not be valid as a result of the company’s dissolution. Thus, they’re limited to 3.A. – which clearly states that they won’t sell the information to “any business.” I wonder what the chance is now that they’ll only sell it to someone who’s TSA-approved.
*Not that the government doesn’t now already have your information as a result of the background check. I’m just sayin’.
Oh boy. This is gonna’ be really interesting. If auditors are held liable for their audits (method and/or results), the rules of the game are about to change.
LicensingHandbook Archive 