An editorial in yesterday’s New York Times begins: Earlier this year, Maryland’s highest court held that collection of DNA samples from people arrested but not yet convicted violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. Last week, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. stayed that ruling while the Supreme Court decides whether to hear Maryland’s appeal of the…
Category: U.S.
Merkley Introduces Bill to Prevent Warrantless Surveillance of Americans
On Thursday, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley introduced the Protect America’s Privacy Act, which would reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to ensure that intelligence agencies are not using a warrantless wiretapping program to collect and store emails and phone calls of American citizens. Under amendments to FISA passed during the Bush administration, the intelligence…
Nadler, Conyers Propose Critical Reforms to Cloud Computing Privacy Laws
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, and Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the Electronic Communications Privacy Act Modernization Act of 2012 in order to bring the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) up to…
Facebook fights to seal financial info in privacy payout case
Jeff John Roberts writes: Facebook and class action lawyers will ask a court today to approve a controversial $20 million settlement over “sponsored stories,” an advertising feature in which Facebook users endorsed products. Meanwhile, a new judge in the case is suggesting that financial information about the value of Facebook users should be unsealed. The…