Science, Computers & Technology › Privacy › Constitutional Law

California Moves One Step Closer to Passing Privacy Bill Requiring a Search Warrant for Providers' Customers' Emails

In a 33-1 vote, on May 13, the state Senate approved Senator Mark Leno's bill that would require state law enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant before asking service providers to disclose the contents of their...more

Sixth Circuit Rules School’s Search Of Student Cellphone Violated Fourth Amendment

In a recent decision, the first federal appellate court to address the rights of school officials to search student cell phones held that a student’s violation of a school rule regarding technology did not justify a general...more

Bills on Use of Mobile-Device-Location Data Reintroduced

Updating our entry on this issue posted during the last Congress, on March 21, 2013, lawmakers in the House and Senate reintroduced companion bills intended to curb government use of mobile users’ geolocation data. The...more

Bill Introduced On Warrantless GPS Tracking

On March 21, a bipartisan group of legislators in the House of Representatives introduced a new bill, the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act, which would force law enforcement to obtain a warrant to track suspects with...more

California District Court Finds National Security Letter Statute Unconstitutional

Last week, in In re National Security Letter, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California found unconstitutional two sections of the federal law allowing the FBI to issue “National Security...more

Setback for Apple in iPhone MDL

In a case about exposing user data, Apple suffered a setback due to its concealment of information in litigation. Last week, in the multi-district litigation, In Re iPhone Application Litigation, Judge Lucy Koh of the...more

Court: Data on Unsecured Network May Qualify for 4th Amendment Protection

The vast increase in the use of wireless data networks has led to new legal issues regarding network users’ right to privacy. A recent opinion issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon indicates that, under...more

Supreme Court’s Clapper Decision Raises Bar for Standing in Data Security Breach Litigation

On February 26, 2013, the United States Supreme Court in Clapper v. Amnesty International adopted a demanding standard for Article III standing in privacy cases. Although the case addressed issues of Constitutional privacy,...more

Colombia Raises the Stakes on Data Privacy Protection

Colombians enjoy broad personal privacy rights such as: (i) personal and familial privacy; (ii) protection of good name; (iii) protection of personal correspondence and other personal communications; and (iv) access to...more

Capper, Dir of National Intelligence, et al v. Amnesty International USA et al

SCOTUS Dismisses Federal Wiretapping Challenge

Full text copy of Supreme Court's dismissal of lawsuit challenging federal wiretapping program. On Tuesday, February 26, 2013, a divided Court dismissed a challenge to the FISA Amendments Act, which permits federal...more

#Edchat Followup: Legal Issues For BYOD And 1:1 Programs In Schools

Each Tuesday the #Edchat hashtag brings together educators from across the globe to discuss education-related topics on Twitter. Last week one of the questions on #Edchat was “How do we train educators to teach in programs...more

Geolocational Privacy Law Evolved Slowly in 2012

The law of geolocational privacy continued to evolve in 2012 even though the Supreme Court sidestepped the issue in a potential landmark case. Despite the lack of clarity from the Supreme Court, there will be more...more

The Police Are Watching Your Google Searches

Google released a transparency report last week showing that government snooping into your personal data is on the rise. The numbers released by the Internet giant show that law enforcement officials in the United...more

RFID Chip in Student ID Badge Does Not Infringe on Religious Freedom

Requiring a high school student to carry an identification card with an RFID chip does not violate the student’s First Amendment religious and free speech rights. The Northside Independent School District in San Antonio...more

Supreme Court of Canada Decision Demonstrates the Importance of Workplace Computer Policies

In R. v. Cole, 2012 SCC 53, the majority of the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that it was unconstitutional for the police to search the workplace computer of a high school teacher without a warrant. The Supreme Court held...more

Federal District Court Allows Data Breach Class Action to Proceed Based On Risk Of Future Harm

On October 11, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California held that the plaintiffs in a consolidated data breach class action have plead sufficient harm to satisfy Article III’s injury-in-fact requirement...more

Eleventh Circuit Reverses Dismissal of Data Breach Class Action Involving Stolen Laptops

Addressing a purported class action filed after laptops containing health care patients’ private data were stolen, the Eleventh Circuit recently issued one of its more consumer-friendly class action decisions, Resnick v....more

Supreme Court Grants Enhanced Access to Justice for Victims of Cyberbullies

On September 27, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in AB v Bragg Communications Inc., an important constitutional case at the intersection of defamation law and children’s rights. A.B., the...more

Facebook "Friends", 4th Amendment Privacy & Probable Cause

A recent court decision has added support to the idea that there is no privacy on the internet. In United States v. Meregildo, defendant Melvin Colon moved to suppress evidence seized from his Facebook account pursuant...more

Harris v. Matthew A. Sciarrino, Criminal Court Judge

OWS Protester's Memo Of Law In Support of Petition To Overturn Order Requiring Twitter To Turn Over Information

Malcolm Harris was one of 700 people arrested during a peaceful protest march in support of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. He was charged with one count of disorderly conduct for having blocked traffic. Allegedly in...more

Malcolm Harris v. Matthew A. Sciarrino, Criminal Court Judge

OWS Protester's Petition To Overturn Orders Requiring Twitter To Turn Over Tweets, Locational Data & Other Information

Malcolm Harris was one of 700 people arrested during a peaceful protest march in support of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. He was charged with one count of disorderly conduct for having blocked traffic. Allegedly in...more

EPIC Supports Geolocation Privacy Act, Suggests Improvement

In a Statement for the Record, EPIC has expressed support for H.R. 2168, the "Geolocational Privacy and Surveillance Act," which prohibits the interception of location information by private parties and government agents...more

New Law Will Let the Feds Monitor Your Email

A new pending law called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing Protection Act of 2011 (CISPA) might make your email a matter of national security. The proposed legislation could include monitoring of your e-mails, filtering content...more

EPIC Urges Justice Department to Investigate Google for Unlawful Wiretapping

EPIC wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking the Department of Justice to investigate Google’s collection of Wi-Fi data from residential networks by means of "Street View" vehicles. The Federal Communications...more

Vague Definitions in CISPA Raise Concerns of SOPA 2.0 [Video]

April 12 (Bloomberg Law) -- Trevor Timm, activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, talks with Bloomberg Law's Lee Pacchia about the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), a new bill that attempts to...more