Kim Zetter reports: Federal authorities used a fake Verizon cellphone tower to zero in on a suspect’s wireless card, and say they were perfectly within their rights to do so, even without a warrant. But the feds don’t seem to want that legal logic challenged in court by the alleged identity thief they nabbed using…
Category: U.S.
GPS tags will warn victims of domestic violence if their abusive partners are near
From across the pond, Daniel Miller reports on a GPS application in New York State: A New York borough is to begin using GPS tracking tags in a bid to tackle the problem of domestic violence. Starting next year, Staten Island will use the electronic devices to keep track of offenders who have been found…
Was this really “voluntary abandonment” of DNA?
Some courts seem to have adopted an extremely pro-prosecution attitude about what it means to voluntarily “abandon” fingerprints or DNA samples. FourthAmendment.com reports on a California case, People v. Thomas, where a defendant stopped for a DUI consented to a breathalyzer test. Because he did not wipe his saliva off the mouthpiece before handing it back…
Questioning Privacy Protections in Research
Patricia Cohen reports: Hoping to protect privacy in an age when a fingernail clipping can reveal a person’s identity, federal officials are planning to overhaul the rules that regulate research involving human subjects. But critics outside the biomedical arena warn that the proposed revisions may unintentionally create a more serious problem: sealing off vast collections…