How Technology Is Testing the Fourth Amendment

By Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Digits, Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2011

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures” – but what does that mean when it comes to techniques that use technology rather than a physical search that is easy to see? In many ways, it remains unclear. But there a few key issues that courts have been considering lately when it comes to this question. First up: whether the activity being observed by the technology is outside or inside a person’s house. …

For full text of the article, visit: How Technology Is Testing the Fourth Amendment – Digits – WSJ.

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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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Will Employers Soon Use GPS to Catch FMLA Abuse? | Franczek Radelet P.C. – JDSupra

Thanks to Kevin Pomfret for passing this one along:

By Franczek Radelet P.C., JDSUPRA, July 25, 2011

Earlier this week, the folks at the Texas Employment Law Update highlighted a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in which the high court will consider whether law enforcement’s placement of a GPS devise on a suspect’s vehicle without a warrant constitutes an unlawful search in violation of the Fourth Amendment. This case led the authors to wonder aloud whether an employer might surrepticiously use GPS to track an employee who is suspected of abusing leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). …

For full text of the article, via Will Employers Soon Use GPS to Catch FMLA Abuse? | Franczek Radelet P.C. – JDSupra.

Supreme Court To Decide Major GPS Tracking Case

Image via Wikipedia

Electronic Privacy Information Center, June 27, 2011

The Supreme Court will decide if warrantless locational tracking violates the Fourth Amendment. The Court granted review of a District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals opinion on two legal questions. The first is whether police need a warrant to monitor the movements of a car with a tracking device. The second is whether policy can legally install such a device without their target’s consent, and without a valid warrant. …

For full text of the article, including links to relevant cases, visit EPIC – High Court To Decide Major GPS Tracking Case.

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Google’s Web mapping can track your phone

by Declan McCullagh, CNET, June 15, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO–If you have Wi-Fi turned on, the previous whereabouts of your computer or mobile device may be visible on the Web for anyone to see. Google publishes the estimated location of millions of iPhones, laptops, and other devices with Wi-Fi connections, a practice that represents the latest twist in a series of revelations this year about wireless devices and privacy, CNET has learned. … Only Google and Skyhook Wireless, however, make their location databases linking hardware IDs to street addresses publicly available on the Internet, which raises novel privacy concerns when the IDs they’re tracking are mobile. If someone knows your hardware ID, he may be able to find a physical address that the companies associate with you–even if you never intended it to become public. …

For full text of the article, Exclusive: Google’s Web mapping can track your phone | Privacy Inc. – CNET News.

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Using Mobile Phones to Capture Customer Experiences

by Emma Macdonald, Hugh Wilson, and Umut Konus, The Conversation Blog, Harvard Business Review, May 5, 2011

How well do you know your customers? … While you can’t get that close to your customer, their mobile phones can. What if you could appropriate the phone to provide real-time updates on the customer’s behaviors, perceptions, and emotions? This is just what companies — from Coca-Cola to LG Electronics and Unilever — are doing by using a real-time experience tracking approach. …

For full text of the article  via Using Mobile Phones to Capture Customer Experiences – Emma Macdonald, Hugh Wilson, and Umut Konus – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review.

Apple Filed Patent for Mobile Device Tracking

Apple Lied: Filed Patent for Mobile Device Tracking, Infosec Island, Friday, April 29, 2011

Apple’s claim that the geolocation tracking of its customers via a stealth file maintained in devices running the iOS operating system are, well, “patently” false. … Apple filed for a patent in September of 2009 titled “Location Histories for Location Aware Devices” with the intent to develop services based around the company’s ability to locate and track mobile devices running the iOS operating system. The abstract of the patent reads as follows:

“A location aware mobile device can include a baseband processor for communicating with one or more communication networks, such as a cellular network or WiFi network. In some implementations, the baseband processor can collect network information (e.g., transmitter IDs) over time. Upon request by a user or application, the network information can be translated to estimated position coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, altitude) of the location aware device for display on a map view or for other purposes. A user or application can query the location history database with a timestamp or other query to retrieve all or part of the location history for display in a map view.” …

For full text of the article, via Apple Lied: Filed Patent for Mobile Device Tracking.

iPhone or iSpy? Forum on NPR Radio Today

Show to be aired on KQED Radio, NPR on Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 9:00 AM Pacific Coast Time

As new details emerge about the tracking features embedded in smartphones, consumers are starting to wonder: what information about my whereabouts is being collected? How is it used? Who has access to it? And why didn’t I know about it?

Host: Michael Krasny

Guests:

Jackie Speier, U.S. congresswoman (D) representing California’s 12th District

Jim Dempsey, vice president for public policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a civil liberties group which works to enhance free expression and privacy in communications technologies

Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of All Things Digital, a website devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the Internet and media

Peter Batty, vice president of geospatial technology for Ubisense

via iPhone or iSpy?: Forum | KQED Public Media for Northern CA.

Rep. Ed Markey wants privacy answers from Steve Jobs (again)

By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica,  April 22, 2011

Questioning Apple’s privacy policies has become a bicameral proposition. Twenty-four hours after researchers provided a new open-source tool for iPhone users to view their phone’s logged location history, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) have both issued sets of questions for Apple CEO Steve Jobs. While Franken’s letter requests a “prompt” response, Markey wants answers “within fifteen business days.”

For full text of the article, visit Rep. Ed Markey wants privacy answers from Steve Jobs (again).

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Why Apple Tracker-Gate Is the Future of Journalism

Nancy Scola, TechPresident, April 22, 2011 – 11:27am

There have been some grumbling in tech circles ever since Apple tracker-gate broken that this was the worst kept secret the developer world. Everybody knew iOS devices were tracking your movements to and fro. But somehow Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, a pair of programmers, put up on a post on O’Reilly Radar and now, suddenly, we have Sen. Al Franken and Rep. Ed Markey writing angry letters to Steve Jobs. But let me suggest that there’s an interesting wrinkle to what has gone down with Apple tracker-grate that has implications for everything from open source to open government to open data to the the political applications of mapping to, yes, the future of journalism.

For full text of the article via Why Apple Tracker-Gate Is the Future of Journalism | techPresident.

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