Texas proposes one of nation’s “most sweeping” mobile privacy laws
by Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica, March 6, 2013
Privacy experts say that a pair of new mobile privacy bills recently introduced in Texas are among the “most sweeping” ever seen. And they say the proposed legislation offers better protection than a related privacy bill introduced this week in Congress.If passed, the new bills would establish a well-defined, probable-cause-driven warrant requirement for all location information. That’s not just data from GPS, but potentially pen register, tap and trace, and tower location data as well. Such data would be disclosed to law enforcement “if there is probable cause to believe the records disclosing location information will provide evidence in a criminal investigation.”
For full text of the article, please visit Texas proposes one of nation’s “most sweeping” mobile privacy laws | Ars Technica.
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Supreme Court Considers GPS Tracking Case Today
United States v. Jones
Docket No. Op. Below Argument Opinion Vote Author Term
10-1259 D.C. Cir. Nov 8, 2011
Issue: (1) Whether the warrantless use of a tracking device on respondent’s vehicle to monitor its movements on public streets violated the Fourth Amendment; and (2) whether the government violated respondent’s Fourth Amendment rights by installing the GPS tracking device on his vehicle without a valid warrant and without his consent.
Plain English Issue: Whether the Constitution allows police to put a tracking device on a car without either a warrant or the owner’s permission; and whether the Constitution is violated when police use the tracking device to keep track of the car’s whereabouts.
For links to SCOTUS coverage of this case, as well as other materials, visit United States v. Jones : SCOTUSblog.
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New Law Would Require Warrants for GPS Surveillance
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By Marshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb, October 25, 2011
Location data produced by modern technology like GPS and cell phones can today be accessed by law enforcement agents without probably cause and a warrant, but Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has introduced legislation that would change that. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) this week welcomed U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R- Ill.) as a cosponsor of the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act (GPS), making the joint announcement at a Retro Tech Fair sponsored by the Center for Democracy in Technology commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The new Act would require law enforcement to get a warrant before accessing historical or real-time location data about an individual from a technology provider or device, except in cases of national security, theft or fraud. …
For full text of the article, visit New Law Would Require Warrants for GPS Surveillance.
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FBI’s ‘Stingray’ Cellphone Tracker Stirs a Fight Over Search Warrants, Fourth Amendment – WSJ.com
By JENNIFER VALENTINO-DEVRIES, Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2011
For more than a year, federal authorities pursued a man they called simply “the Hacker.” Only after using a little known cellphone-tracking device—a stingray—were they able to zero in on a California home and make the arrest. Stingrays are designed to locate a mobile phone even when it’s not being used to make a call. The Federal Bureau of Investigation considers the devices to be so critical that it has a policy of deleting the data gathered in their use, mainly to keep suspects in the dark about their capabilities, an FBI official told The Wall Street Journal in response to inquiries.
For full text, visit FBI’s ‘Stingray’ Cellphone Tracker Stirs a Fight Over Search Warrants, Fourth Amendment – WSJ.com.
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Court: Some data on government cell phone tracking should be public – CNN.com
By Bill Mears, CNN Supreme Court Producer, September, 2011
Washington (CNN) — Information about how and when the government gathers and uses cell phone location data to track certain criminal suspects should be made available to the public, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. At issue was whether the Justice Department could be forced to release once-sensitive records from past cases, following a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the public’s interest outweighed any privacy concerns raised by the government over their warrantless wiretapping.
For full text of article, visit: Court: Some data on government cell phone tracking should be public – CNN.com.
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Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Geolocation Privacy Case
Posted by Bret Cohen, Hogan Lovells Chronicle of Data Protection, July 5, 2011
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Geolocation Privacy CaseThe Supreme Court on June 27 granted certiorari in a geolocation tracking case that could have implications for companies that incorporate location-tracking features into their products or that monitor the locations of their employees or assets. Specifically, the Court asked the parties to brief whether the government violated the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights by installing a Global Positioning System GPS tracking device on his vehicle without his warrant and without his consent. …
For full analysis, visit Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Geolocation Privacy Case : HL Chronicle of Data Protection.
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Obama Administration Wants to Take Warrant Requirement for GPS Use to Supreme Court – All Points Blog
By Adena Schutzberg, Directions Magazine, April 18, 2011
On Friday Apr 15 the administration asked the Supreme Court to take a case to determine whether the police need a warrant before using a GPS device to track a suspect’s movements. A recent appeal by a lower court reversed a conviction because the police did not obtain a warrant. That case was in Washington, but other federal appeals court have ruled warrants are not required.
See also:
http://bit.ly/ge308C and http://tinyurl.com/3rpdua6
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