"electronic privacy" entries
U.S. Senate to consider long overdue reforms on electronic privacy
The silver lining in the role of cloud-based email in the CIA Director's resignation is a renewed focus on digital privacy.
In 2010, electronic privacy needed digital due process. In 2012, it’s worth defending your vanishing rights online.
This week, there’s an important issue before Washington that affects everyone who sends email, stores files in Dropbox or sends private messages on social media. In January, O’Reilly Media went dark in opposition to anti-piracy bills. Personally, I believe our right to digital due process for government to access private electronic are just as important.
Why? Here’s the context for my interest. The silver lining in the way former CIA Director David Petraeus’ affair was discovered may be its effect on the national debate around email and electronic privacy, and our rights in a surveillance state. The courts and Congress have failed to fully address the constitutionality of warrantless wiretapping of cellphones and the location of “persons of interest.” Phones themselves, however, are a red herring. What’s at stake is the Fourth Amendment in the 21st century, with respect to the personal user data that telecommunications and technology firms hold that government is requesting without digital due process.
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider an update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), the landmark 1986 legislation that governs the protections citizens have when they communicate using the Internet or cellphones. (It’s the small item on the bottom of this meeting page.)
UPDATE: Senator Leahy’s manager’s amendment to ECPA passed but Politico’s Tony Romm reports that the full Congress is unlikely to pass ECPA reform in this session.
Apple iTunes gifts users with a privacy hole
An iTunes privacy issue uncovered by Andrew McAfee highlights the need for better privacy by design.
The Apple iTunes gift function comes with a privacy issue: whoever is making the gift can see if the recipient already owns a song, video or app. The mechanism illustrates why privacy needs to be baked into electronic commerce from the beginning.
ECPA reform: Why digital due process matters
The shift to cloud computing puts Electronic Communications Privacy Act reform in the spotlight.
Academics, technology companies, and privacy and civil liberties advocates are in agreement: the laws governing electronic privacy need an update. In these video interviews, four professors and the ACLU counsel reflect on "digital due process."