The New York Times has an editorial in today’s paper that begins: The Ohio Supreme Court has struck an important blow for privacy rights, ruling that the police need a warrant to search a cellphone. The court rightly recognized that cellphones today are a lot more than just telephones, that they hold a wealth of…
Category: Surveillance
CRS: Privacy: An Overview of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping
CRS report 98-326 Privacy: An Overview of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping December 03, 2009 Summary: This report provides an overview of federal law governing wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping. It also appends citations to state law in the area and contains a bibliography of legal commentary as well as the text of the…
CA: Judge allows DNA sampling for felony arrestees
Bob Egelko reports: A federal judge refused Wednesday to block a voter-approved California law requiring anyone arrested on a felony charge to provide DNA samples, saying genetic information is similar to fingerprints and helps police solve crimes. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco rejected an American Civil Liberties Union request to halt enforcement…
Texas to destroy baby blood taken without consent
Jay Root of the Associated Press reports: Texas health authorities will destroy as many as four million blood samples taken from babies without parental consent and stored indefinitely for scientific research. The Texas Department of State Health Services announced Tuesday it would destroy the samples after settling a federal lawsuit filed by the Texas Civil…