Mike Scarcella reports: Scott Tooley’s contention that the government started secretly watching him and his family members after a conversation he had with a Southwest Airlines employee about post-Sept. 11 security was dealt a severe blow today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The appeals panel, calling the claims in the…
An Unpoular View of Google Books
Larry Downes writes: I’m starting to feel like the only person who thinks the Google Books settlement with authors and publishers is a good deal. One voice that seems not to be heard, however, over the din of Google competitors, panicky law professors, and regulators who wouldn’t know a workable solution to a copyright problem…
D.C. Circuit Examines Warrantless GPS Surveillance
Mike Scarcella writes: When federal authorities got a warrant to install an electronic tracking device to track a drug suspect, agents acted in an “abundance of caution,” a federal prosecutor said today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where the government is defending its ability to secretly follow suspects without judicial…
Google Adds Location History to Latitude: Feature Request, or Strategic Rollout?
Michael Zimmer writes: When Google launched Google Latitude 9 months ago, they took steps to ensure users’ locational privacy was protected. Among the most important privacy-protecting features was the fact that Google didn’t keep a log of user locations on its servers; only the most recent locational ping was stored. Not even law enforcement could…