DOJ Will Be More Transparent About Secret Cell Phone Tracking

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has stated that it will soon become more transparent about its secret cell phone tracking program.  According to The Wall Street Journal, "the Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun getting search warrants from judges to use the devices, which hunt criminal suspects by locating their cellphones, the officials said. For years, FBI agents didn’t get warrants to use the tracking devices."

This change in behavior is welcome news.  Law enforcement should be required to obtain a warrant before deploying these technologies.  Police across the country have utilized devices sometimes called stingrays without a warrant thousands of times to collect information about cell phone users for years.  The usage of these technologies on American soil appears to have started around 2007 and according to published reports is widespread across the country.

In a democratic and free society, it is imperative for law enforcement to be transparent about their practices.  Even though there may be security concerns regarding being too transparent about some of the details of these programs, the usage of these technologies without a warrant is a clear violation of our Fourth Amendment rights. 

While I applaud the DOJ's decision to change its practice and now obtain a warrant before deploying these tools what triggered the change in policy?  In 2014, the Supreme Court in Riley v. California ruled 9-0 that the police generally need a warrant to search electronic devices of those who are arrested.  The DOJ's policy should have been updated right after this ruling occurred and not almost a year later.     

The bottom line is that privacy still matters in the Digital Age and that transparency and accountability are more important than ever due to the increased sophistication of digital surveillance tools.

Copyright 2015 by The Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.

Twitter Quietly Updates Its Terms of Service

According to Mashable, Twitter quietly updated its Terms of Service on Friday in anticipation of new European Data Protection (privacy) laws.  Unfortunately for U.S. users, Twitter's new terms apply to international and not U.S. based users.

An Irish subsidiary was chosen as the location for international user data because it has a reputation for less Internet related regulations.  In other words, other European countries have different beliefs in how data should be protected.  In my opinion, many of Ireland's Internet related regulatory positions are based purely upon economic reasons.

Less regulations may mean more economic development.  For example, I live and work in Montgomery County, Maryland and it has an unfavorable regulatory reputation compared to multiple Northern Virginia counties. Therefore, Fortune 500 companies are more willing to relocate and open subsidiaries in the "business friendly" climate of Virginia.

In general, social media companies are not platforms that are built with privacy by design in mind.  The services provided by Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc... were created to data mine users for behavioral advertising purposes (don't believe any co-founder who states they wanted to make the world a better place, etc....).  Therefore, I do not trust these platforms to handle any sensitive or confidential information/communication.

The European Union is working on stronger data protection regulations because it understands the dangers inherent when companies engage in unfettered collection and data mining of personal information.  It is expected that  Europe will enact stronger data protection laws sometime later this year.  My hope is that the U.S. will follow the EU's lead in trying to create a more private, less discriminatory, and non-monopolistic digital data future.

Copyright 2015 by The Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.