Caroline Belich writes: According to the Wall Street Journal and other sources, federal prosecutors in New Jersey are investigating whether certain mobile applications for smartphones have illegally obtained or transmitted information about their users. Part of the criminal investigation is to determine whether these app makers made appropriate disclosures to users about how and why their personal…
Category: Court
Applying the Mosaic Theory of the Fourth Amendment to Disclosure of Stored Records
Orin Kerr writes: I’ve blogged a few times about United States v. Maynard, the controversial D.C. Circuit case holding that over time, GPS surveillance begins to be a search that requires a warrant. Maynard introduced a novel mosaic theory of the Fourth Amendment: Although individual moments of surveillance were not searches, when you added up the surveillance…
Google, Facebook take France to court over privacy
Internet heavyweights including Google and Facebook are to file a complaint with France’s highest judicial body against a decree obliging them to keep web users’ personal data for a year. More than 20 Internet companies active in France, including Dailymotion and eBay, are bringing the case before the State Council, their representative French Association of…
EFF to Oregon Supreme Court: Police Need Warrant to Search Arrestees’ Cell Phones
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged the Oregon Supreme Court to block warrantless searches of arrestees’ cell phones Friday, arguing in an amicus brief that granting law enforcement free rein to search data on the devices violates basic privacy protections guaranteed by the Constitution. Other state supreme courts have considered the issue, but they have…