In a victory for privacy advocates, Germany’s highest court on Tuesday knocked down an anti-terrorism law that allows authorities to store all phone and internet records of private citizens. The Karlsruhe-based Constitutional Court ruled that the mass storage of private records breaches Germany’s constitution, effectively overturning a law passed in 2008 that compels communications companies…
Category: Surveillance
Kerr: Fourth Amendment Seizures of Computer Data
Orin Kerr’s article, “Fourth Amendment Seizures of Computer Data,” is in the Yale Law Journal, 119:700 2010, and is available online. Here is the abstract: What does it mean to “seize” computer data for Fourth Amendment purposes? Does copying data amount to a seizure, and if so, when? This Article argues that copying data “seizes”…
Collection and Use of Location Information for Commercial Purposes
The House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection and the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a joint hearing titled, “The Collection and Use of Location Information for Commercial Purposes,” on Wednesday, February 24. The hearing examined privacy and other issues related to the commercial collection, use, and sharing of…
Congress Extends Library Provision of Patriot Act to 2011
Beverly Goldberg writes: The U.S. House of Representatives sent Pres. Obama a bill extending three often-contested provisions of the Patriot Act on the evening of February 26, two days before the sections were due to expire. Approved by a vote of 315–97 the night after the Senate passed the bill by voice vote, H.R.< 3961…