FourthAmendment.com brings us news of a court opinion that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees engaged in an unreasonable search of a passenger’s luggage and that the child pornography they uncovered should be suppressed. In United States v. McCarty, the court held: Despite the testimony indicating that the TSA employees searched the photographs solely to determine…
Category: Surveillance
Editorial: Speech and privacy
The following editorial appeared in the Providence Journal: It may have been mere incompetence, but it is chilling that the Obama Justice Department sent a subpoena for an undeclared reason to an Internet news site, Indymedia.us, demanding records of all traffic to that site on June 25, 2008. Even more ominously, it demanded “all other…
Einstein 3 Privacy Concerns Voiced
Eric Chabrow reports: As the federal government readies the third iteration of Einstein, privacy concerns over the intrusion detection system were voiced at a Senate hearing on Tuesday. Philip Reitinger, Department of Homeland Security deputy undersecretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate, told the Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland…
UK: Brains behind neighbourhood ‘spies’ project stands up for her proposal
David Baker reports: The mastermind behind the ‘neighbourhood champions’ scheme has defended the idea – after it was given the stamp of approval at a cabinet meeting last week. At the meeting on Thursday, last week, Councillor Susan Hall dismissed claims the proposal was akin to spying and insisted the idea would be a success….