Fourth Amendment

Police procedures leaked for getting into Facebook, other accounts

Confidential guidelines telling police how to access Facebook, Microsoft, Blizzard, and AOL user accounts have appeared online this week.

The files, known colloquially as law enforcement guidelines, typically tell police what types of user data are stored, how long they're retained, and what procedures to use to gain access to them.

A few types of requests--for e-mail less than 180 days old, for instance--tend to require search warrants. In general, basic subscriber information can be disclosed with a subpoena, and a court order is required for more extensive information (whether that's sufficient is the subject of ongoing litigation … Read more

Second judge gives DOJ access to WikiLeaks-related Twitter accounts

The U.S. Justice Department will be allowed access to WikiLeaks-related Twitter accounts, including information about what Internet and e-mail addresses are associated with them, a federal district judge ruled today.

The 60-page ruling from U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady in Virginia represents a second victory for the Department of Justice, which sought the court order as part of a grand jury probe that appears to be investigating whether WikiLeaks principals including editor Julian Assange violated American criminal laws.

"The Twitter order did not violate the Constitution," O'Grady concluded. In addition, he said, there was … Read more

Google, Facebook go retro in push to update 1986 privacy law

WASHINGTON--For a few hours on Capitol Hill yesterday evening, it was October 1986 again, complete with legwarmers, an Apple IIc, pop rocks, Duran Duran, and cell phones the size of a cat.

The companies sponsoring this night of nostalgia include Google and Facebook, which are hoping to visibly highlight how out-of-date a law enacted 25 years ago today has become in an age of cloud computing, gigabit networks, and terabyte storage.

The law in question is the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a statute written in the pre-Internet era of telephone modems and the black-and-white Macintosh Plus. A coalition of … Read more

Justice Department ramps up WikiLeaks e-mail probe

The U.S. Department of Justice has expanded its investigation of WikiLeaks-related accounts to encompass Google and Internet provider Sonic.net.

Both companies received secret court orders directing them to turn over information from the e-mail account of Jacob Appelbaum, a hacker and human rights activist who has been affiliated with WikiLeaks, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

CNET has learned that the secret court order is what's called a 2703(d) order. It's not as privacy-protective as a traditional search warrant, and some courts have ruled that such orders are unconstitutional when used to read a suspect'… Read more

Privacy cases slated for U.S. Supreme Court's new term

When police in the District of Columbia decided to use an automobile GPS bug to surreptitiously track the movements of Antoine Jones, a suspected cocaine dealer, they set in motion a legal challenge that will end before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court's fall term, which begins today, includes a review of Jones' attempt to overturn his conviction. His attorneys argue that such precise turn-by-turn tracking requires a search warrant signed by a judge--a step that D.C. police chose not to take.

It's one of a handful of technology cases that, in addition to a high-profile … Read more

Privacy at risk: Who's watching you? (roundup)

The notion of Big Brother has been around for decades, but technology has long lagged behind the Orwellian imagination. Not any more--in the era of smartphones, face recognition, and the omnipresent Internet, the stakes are now much higher. That's what drives the new CBS drama "Person of Interest." Read on for more about the show and about the real-world connectable dots of the everyday surveillance we live with.

Video: "Person of Interest"--Cell phones spying on you

See additional "Person of Interest" videos below.

TODAY'S PRIVACY REALITIES

CNET's Security Center Writers … Read more

How 9/11 attacks reshaped U.S. privacy debate

It was not that long ago that U.S. congressman Spencer Bachus, a conservative Republican from Alabama, was defending Americans' right to privacy against overreaching government surveillance.

"Technology has outrun the law," Bachus said during a July 2000 hearing. He wondered: "What level of monitoring do we, as a country, want to have on private conversations?"

Soon afterward, that House of Representatives committee took the unprecedented step of voting, by a 20-1 margin, to require police to obtain a warrant from a judge before e-mail could be read or mobile phones could be tracked. The legislation … Read more

White House: Need to monitor online 'extremism'

A White House terrorism strategy released today says Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks aid in "advancing violent extremist narratives" and should be monitored by the government.

The 12-page strategy (PDF), which outlines ways to respond to violent extremism, promises that: "We will continue to closely monitor the important role the Internet and social-networking sites play in advancing violent extremist narratives."

President Obama said in a statement accompanying the report that the federal government will start "helping communities to better understand and protect themselves against violent extremist propaganda, especially online."

While much of the … Read more

House panel approves broadened ISP snooping bill

Internet providers would be forced to keep logs of their customers' activities for one year--in case police want to review them in the future--under legislation that a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved today.

The 19 to 10 vote represents a victory for conservative Republicans, who made data retention their first major technology initiative after last fall's elections, and the Justice Department officials who have quietly lobbied for the sweeping new requirements, a development first reported by CNET.

A last-minute rewrite of the bill expands the information that commercial Internet providers are required to store to include customers' … Read more

TSA hopes scanner upgrades reduce privacy worries

The Transportation Security Agency is planning to accelerate adoption of software it says will help "enhance passenger privacy" for its controversial full-body scanners.

TSA chief John Pistole said yesterday that the software, which shows only generic body outlines rather than actual images, soon will be installed on all full-body scanners that use millimeter wave technology. Testing on body scanners that use backscatter X-ray technology will begin this fall.

The announcement comes after TSA said in February that it would begin testing the software upgrades on scanners in Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. (See related CNET Q&A … Read more