Sylvain, Olivier, Failing Expectations: Fourth Amendment Doctrine in the Era of Total Surveillance (July 28, 2014). 49 Wake Forest Law Review 485. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2473101 “Today’s reasonable expectation test and the third-party doctrine have little to nothing to offer by way of privacy protection if users today are at least conflicted about whether… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Courts
Consumer Privacy Organizations Oppose Farcical Class Action Settlement
“EPIC, along with a group of consumer privacy organizations, has asked the Federal Trade Commission to object to an unfair class action settlement in California federal court. In 2010, Google was sued for sharing user web browsing information with advertisers. Under the proposed settlement agreement, Google will distribute several million dollars to a handful of organizations, many of… Continue Reading
Rise Seen in Asylum Denial Rates
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: “The odds of an asylum claim being denied in Immigration Court has risen to 50.2 percent during the first nine months of 2014. While this is the highest denial rate since FY 2009, it is still much lower than ten years ago when nearly two out of three (62.6%) of those… Continue Reading
EPIC Sues FBI for Missing Privacy Reports
“EPIC has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to obtain details about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s surveillance programs. The agency is required to conduct privacy impact assessments when it collects and uses personal data. However, the Bureau has failed to publicly release privacy impact assessments for many of its programs, including facial recognition, drones, and license plate… Continue Reading
Reliability Assessment of Current Methods in Bloodstain Pattern Analysis
Reliability Assessment of Current Methods in Bloodstain Pattern Analysis. Terry Laber, Paul Kish, Michael Taylor, Glynn Owens, Nikola Osborne, James Curran. June 2014. The author(s) shown used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice in preparing this final report. Final Report for the National Institute of Justice Award # 2010-DN-BX-K213. “To date there have been relatively… Continue Reading
A National Consensus: Cell Phone Location Records Are Private – EFF
“The Fourth Amendment protects us from “unreasonable” government searches of our persons, houses, papers and effects. How courts should determine what is and isn’t reasonable in our increasingly digital world is the subject of a new amicus brief we filed today in San Francisco federal court. At issue is historical cell site data—the records of the cell towers a customer’s… Continue Reading
Federal and State Wiretaps Up 5% in 2013 According to Annual Report
EPIC: “The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has issued the 2013 Wiretap Report, detailing the use of surveillance authorities by law enforcement agencies. This annual report, one of the most comprehensive issued by any agency, provides an insight into the debate over surveillance authorities and the use of privacy-enhancing technologies. In 2013, wiretap applications increased… Continue Reading
Free Exercise of Religion by Closely Held Corporations – CRS
Free Exercise of Religion by Closely Held Corporations: Implications of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. Cynthia Brougher, Legislative Attorney. July 23, 2014 “One of the ongoing controversies related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been the scope of exemption from certain health care coverage requirements, including the contraceptive coverage requirement. Though closely divided, the U.S. Supreme Court’s… Continue Reading
26 Questions EU Regulators Want Google to Answer – WSJ
WSJ.com: “European Union privacy watchdogs grilled Google Inc. and other search engines for two hours on Thursday on how they are implementing the bloc’s new “right to be forgotten” online–and then gave them homework to do by next week, too. The main body that joins together the EU’s national data-protection regulators called the Brussels meeting with… Continue Reading
New on LLRX – What Does the Hathitrust Decision Mean For Libraries?
Via LLRX.com – What Does the Hathitrust Decision Mean For Libraries? The library community welcomed the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Authors Guild v. HathiTrust. The decision has implications for libraries that go far beyond the specific facts of the case. This paper by Jonathan Band offers some preliminary thoughts on… Continue Reading
EFF Publishes New Whitepaper on the Broken Penalty System
EFF – “Today, the House Judiciary Committee [held] a hearing on “remedies” in copyright law—that is, the penalties, injunctions, and other means of challenging and penalizing alleged infringement. This is hugely important: fixing copyright’s remedy provisions (like excessive, unpredictable monetary penalties and government seizures of domain names) is key to ensuring that copyright does its job—helping… Continue Reading
The Evolution of Consensus in the U.S. Supreme Court
Rice, Douglas and Zorn, Christopher J., The Evolution of Consensus in the U.S. Supreme Court (July 22, 2014). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2470029 “For small, collegial bodies such as the U.S. Supreme Court, interpersonal dynamics play a key role in the decision making process. Previous work on the Court has focused on the existence of… Continue Reading
