In this interesting AP article [link no longer available], a man won an invasion of privacy lawsuit when his property manager searched his home and reported to the FBI that there were terrorist materials in the apartment. FBI officials detained, fingerprinted, and handcuffed the man, but eventually determined that the man wasn’t a terrorist:
A federal jury awarded an Egyptian-born radiologist nearly $2.5 million for invasion of privacy after a property manager searched his apartment and called police on Sept. 11, 2001.
After four days of deliberations, the jury issued the award Thursday to Basem M.F. Hussein, saying the invasion of his privacy was made with “malice of reckless indifference” to his rights.
Sherri Lynn Wilson had entered Hussein’s apartment in Coraopolis the day of the attacks to replace furnace filters, according to testimony. She told the FBI she saw Arabic literature, an airplane flight manual, a compact disc jacket that showed an exploding airplane, and chemical residue she believed to be from bomb-making activities.
What she actually saw was a popular flight simulator computer game and its CD jacket, which did not depict an exploding airplane, Hussein’s attorney said. The purported Arabic literature was an English version of the Koran; the chemical residue was household dust.
Hussein was awarded $850,000 in compensatory damages and $1.6 million in punitive damages.
Originally posted at Concurring Opinions
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This post was authored by Professor Daniel J. Solove, who through TeachPrivacy develops computer-based privacy training, data security training, HIPAA training, and many other forms of awareness training on privacy and security topics. Professor Solove also posts at his blog at LinkedIn. His blog has more than 1 million followers.
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