A new law went into effect in Minnesota today. As reported by Mark Sommerhauser: A new law requires cell-phone companies to reveal call-location information if asked by law enforcement to do so in an emergency. The law came from the Kelsey Smith Act, named for a missing Kansas teen whose body was found after a…
Category: U.S.
NY: High-tech crackdown on illegal pools raises privacy fears
Mitchell Freedman If you live in Riverhead and have a backyard pool that doesn’t have a permit, beware: The town is using a new tool to find you without ever setting foot on your property. In a move other Long Island towns may copy but privacy advocates say raises “Big Brother” concerns, Riverhead has used…
Researcher detained at U.S. border, questioned about Wikileaks
Elinor Mills has a story on cnet that suggests that once again, when it’s not convenient for our government, the Fourth Amendment becomes merely advisory: A security researcher involved with the Wikileaks Web site was detained by U.S. agents at the border for three hours and questioned about the controversial whistleblower project as he entered…
Breaking a Promise on Surveillance
From a New York Times editorial: It is just a technical matter, the Obama administration says: We just need to make a slight change in a law to make clear that we have the right to see the names of anyone’s e-mail correspondents and their Web browsing history without the messy complication of asking a…