FIRST AMENDMENT CENTER
Tony Mauro | April 21, 2011

Prison inmates may be left without an effective remedy for violations of their religious freedom as a result of a Supreme Court ruling yesterday, civil rights advocates say.

The Court ruled in Sossamon v. Texas that states may not be sued for money damages under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a 2000 federal law aimed in part at protecting the First Amendment right of prisoners to practice their religion.

The ruling still allows inmates to win injunctions that would stop or change policies that impinge on religious freedom. But critics say that without the possibility of monetary damages, states will have little incentive to change their ways or punish officials for their actions. Critics argue that without damages it will be easy for states to avoid the scrutiny of courts by transferring or releasing prisoners or by slightly modifying policies to make cases moot.

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THE RECORD SEARCHLIGHT (Redding.com)
Scott Mobley | April 15, 2011

Redding is poised to approve a policy allowing limited leafleting at the main library entrance despite lawsuit threats.

The City Council, acting as the Redding Municipal Library Board of Trustees, will consider the policy Monday over the protests of civil libertarians.

North State Tea Party Alliance and American Civil Liberties Union representatives plan to hand out literature to library patrons near the building entrance at 4 p.m. Monday, a bit over an hour before the council meets at nearby City Hall to consider the policy.

Only one group at a time would be allowed to distribute pamphlets and other literature at the library entrance under the proposed policy.

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Editorial: “Library policy would pick fight without a point”

Follow-up articles:
“Library leaflet lawsuits are filed; Tea Party Alliance, ACLU work together” (The Redding Searchlight by Sean Longoria, April 29, 2011)

“Leaflets keep flying; Redding library rules blocked for now” (The Redding Searchlight by Scott Mobley, May 4, 2011)

“DOJ Weighs Supreme Court Challenge in GPS Surveillance Dispute”The BLT: The Blog of LegalTimes | March 18, 2011

“Privacy Protections for Personal Information Online”Congressional Research Service | April 6, 2011

“Facebook looks to cash in on user data”By Jessica Guynn
Chicago Tribune | April 17, 2011

“DOJ to Supreme Court: Approve warrantless GPS surveillance”Computer World Blog | April 20, 2011

“ACLU concerned over Michigan State Police extracting data from cellphones”Los Angeles Times | April 21, 2011

“California Bill Would Offer Clear Protection for Digital Reading Records”By Michael Kelley
Library Journal | April 21, 2011

“Show Us the Data. (It’s Ours, After All.)”By Richard H. Thaler
New York Times | April 23, 2011

“Let the Patriot Act die: Invasive provisions about to expire haven’t made us safer”By Coleen Rowley and Philip Leggiere
Washington Post | April 25, 2011

How important is your online privacy? Does it cross a line when your gadgets track where you go when you are offline? Is it too much that Apple knows you’ve been to Starbucks three times today? Turns out your phone may know everywhere you have been and it isn’t shy about keeping that information. Minnesota Senator Al Franken has asked Apple for answers about the nature of location tracking on the iPhone (as well as the iPad) and why users were never made aware of its existence. Franken as well as the Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, announced the first hearing will occur on May 10, 2011 of “Protecting Mobile Privacy : Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy.”

Apple and Google have been asked to appear as well as witnesses from the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission. Also appearing will be Ashkan Soltani, an independent privacy researcher and consultant; and Justin Brookman, Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Project on Consumer Privacy.

I think users were slightly aware of the existence of location tracking. Can it really be a surprise to anyone anymore that this valuable information is collected and used to target ads to the consumer? Apple claims that all location data is anonymous and not linked to specific users. Maybe Apple could have bypassed all of this scrutiny by allowing users to opt out of data collecting. As of now the only way iPhone users can avoid having their location tracked is to jailbreak the device (a really big no-no in your terms of service) to install a third party app or find another phone. Turning off the location setting on the iPhone does not prevent the handset from storing or transmitting such data.

Here are some questions I hope will encourage discussion from Librarians interested in intellectual freedom. Do you care if people know where you go? Are you OK that you can receive targeted ads for the places you frequent? Would you like Apple and Google to release this information so you can get better advertising and suggestions offered to you? Do you believe Eric Schmidt’s statement from December 2009 that “if you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

Where do you draw your privacy line?

http://technorati.com/technology/article/apples-locationgate-2011-to-be-investigated/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/20/iphone-tracking-prompts-privacy-fears