Andy Greenberg discusses the newly report on wiretapping, with a focus on how often encryption became an issue: As encryption technologies have outpaced the mathematical methods of breaking crypto schemes, law enforcement has feared for years that scrambled messages between evildoers (or law-breaking activists) would thwart their snooping. But it seems that either lawbreakers aren’t…
Category: U.S.
CAAF: No general exception to Fourth Amendment in living quarters in combat zone
From FourthAmendment.com: The Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces held today there is no general Fourth Amendment exception to military quarters in a combat zone. The court declined to rely on the military judge’s alternate ruling “that Appellant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his living quarters.” Under the facts of this case,…
Privacy, Crime and Security Online Police Wiretapping Jumps 26 Percent
Ryan Singel writes: The number of wiretaps authorized by state and federal judges in criminal investigations jumped 26 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to a report released Friday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Courts authorized 2,376 criminal wiretap orders in 2009, with 96 percent targeting mobile phones in drug cases, according to the report. Federal…
WV: New law to change how police officers search vehicles
Erica Peterson broke: Despite the fact that West Virginia’s population is about 95 percent white, a recent study by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services found that minority drivers in West Virginia are 1.5 times more likely to be stopped by police than white drivers. And once those drivers are stopped, minority drivers are…