Last week, in Alasaad v. McAleenan, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled that the Fourth Amendment requires reasonable suspicion that a traveler is carrying contraband in order to search a traveler’s smartphone or laptop at airports and other U.S. ports of entry. Judge Denise J. Casper’s decision relied on Riley v. … Continue Reading
Last week, a California magistrate judge denied federal prosecutors’ application for a search warrant on the grounds that law enforcement cannot force people to unlock their phones using biometric features, such as fingerprints and facial recognition.… Continue Reading
On April 17, 2018, the European Commission published the e-Evidence Initiative, long-awaited legislation that would create a new framework for European Union (“EU”) Member States to access content data and metadata (collectively “e-evidence”) across national borders. The European Commission released the proposal less than one month after the United States created its own framework governing … Continue Reading
By Lauren Moxley In late July, three bipartisan bills to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (“ECPA”) were introduced in the Senate. Each of the bills propose different updates to ECPA, which governs law enforcement access to consumer information stored with service providers. As we have discussed here, here, here, and here, the … Continue Reading
By Lauren Moxley Today, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Carpenter v. United States, a case addressing Americans’ privacy rights in cell phone tracking data. The Court will consider whether a warrantless search and seizure of cell phone records revealing the location and movements of a cell phone user over the course of several months … Continue Reading
In February 2015, a jury convicted Ross Ulbricht of drug trafficking and other crimes associated with his creation and operation of Silk Road, an online marketplace whose users primarily purchased and sold illegal goods and services. A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York then sentenced Ulbricht to … Continue Reading
