“Online Privacy: Americans Want It, and They Want It Now. So Why Can’t They Get It?”
(ITworld | Dan Tynan | July 24, 2012)

A new survey by Truste claims 94 percent of people care deeply about online privacy. Unfortunately, none of them are in the online advertising industry.

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“Garret Keizer Looks At The State of Privacy”
(Vermont Public Radio Edition | Steve Zind |August 8, 2012)

Terrorism, technology and the Patriot Act are just three causes for a reduction in the level of privacy that Americans now enjoy. So have we willingly given abandoned our need and desire to maintain a certain level for privacy? Or has our interest just been temporarily relaxed in the post-9-11 digital age?

Author Garret Keizer’s new book “Privacy” looks at how we now define it and whether it has become obsolete. He discusses how views on privacy differ across social, political and cultural lines.

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“What Happens When Our Cellphones Can Predict Our Every Move?”
(Slate | Will Oremus | August 8, 2012)

Your cellphone knows where you’ve been. And new research shows it can take a pretty good guess at where you’re going next.

A team of British researchers has developed an algorithm that uses tracking data on people’s phones to predict where they’ll be in 24 hours. The average error: just 20 meters.

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“Appeals court OKs warrantless tracking”
(The Hill | Brendan Sasso | August 14, 2012)

A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that police do not need a warrant to track the location of a suspect’s phone.

The United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that the Drug Enforcement Administration did not violate the constitutional rights of Melvin Skinner when it collected his phone’s GPS data.

DEA agents tracked Skinner’s pay-as-you-go phone as he transported drugs between Arizona and Tennessee. They arrested him at a rest stop in Texas with a motor home filled with more than 1,100 pounds of marijuana.

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“Sixth Circuit: No Expectation of Privacy in Cell Phone GPS Data”
(Wall Street Journal | Joe Palazzolo | August 14, 2012)

Drug dealers, beware. Your pay-as-you-go phones probably have GPS. And, according to a federal appeals court in Cincinnati, police can track the signal they emit without a warrant.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that the Drug Enforcement Administration committed no Fourth Amendment violation in using a drug runner’s cellphone data to track his whereabouts.

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“Markey confronts law enforcement, DOJ over growing cellphone record requests”
(The Hill | Julie Ershadi | August 10, 2012)

After investigations revealed a startling number of law enforcement requests for private cellphone data in recent years, Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) on Thursday released a discussion draft of legislation that would limit such digital searches and seizures.

As co-chairman of the Congressional Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, Markey’s inquiry with nine major wireless carriers revealed that law enforcement officials at all levels of government made 1.3 million requests for user data from the companies in 2011.

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ARS TECHNICA
Cyrus Farivar | July 17, 2012

If you’re a student of the privacy and tech law worlds (or you just read Ars) then you’re probably familiar with last year’s Supreme Court decision, Jones v. United States. Earlier this year, the nine justices unanimously agreed that placing a GPS tracking device on a suspect’s car without a warrant was unconstitutional. That decision continues to have ripple effects throughout the privacy law world, and likely will for years to come.

However, as we pointed out in our January 2012 coverage, the justices disagreed amongst themselves about why it violated the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures. One wing of the court found that installing the GPS device was an unwarranted physical trespass on private property and therefore illegal. The minority wing found the practice unconstitutional as it violated the doctrine known as “a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

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Related article:
It’s legal: cops seize cell phone, impersonate owner
(Arc Technica | Timothy B. Lee | July 19, 2012)

THE HILL
Andrew Feinberg | May 17, 2012

Law enforcement and civil libertarians clashed Thursday over a GOP-backed bill to limit how law enforcement can track individuals using their mobile phones.

The Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act, sponsored by Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), would require law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant based on probable cause before tracking individuals using geolocation data from their mobile phones.

But at a Thursday hearing of the House Judiciary subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association President John Ramsey complained that the bill was “overly broad” and would hinder law enforcement.

Ramsey said requiring warrants for tracking could be the start of a slippery slope.

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THE HILL
Brendan Sasso | May 10, 2012

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asked the Justice Department on Thursday to explain its practices for gathering data on people’s cellphone locations.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Franken asked how often the Justice Department requests that wireless carriers turn over the location data of their customers and what legal standard the department believes should apply.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a report last month that found that local police across the country regularly gather cellphone location data, often without a warrant. The ACLU called the practice “pervasive and frequent.”

The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year in United States v. Jones that tracking a suspect’s car using a GPS device qualifies as a search under the Fourth Amendment.

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