By Hannah Lepow Yesterday California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris released guidance on how smartphone and tablet users can manage GPS and other location tracking functions on their mobile devices. The brief information sheet, designed for consumers, details how Android and iOS users can control different types of location information on their devices, including location … Continue Reading
Last Friday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced the ECPA 2.0 Act, H.R. 6529, which would strengthen the legal standards for law enforcement to gain access to electronic communications and location information. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) is more than 25 years old and is widely seen as needing modernization to address changes in digital … Continue Reading
Last week, the California legislature passed one of the nation’s most restrictive bills governing law enforcement’s ability to access location information. Under the California Location Privacy Act, state and local government agencies would be required to secure search warrants before obtaining historical or current location information for any electronic device. The California bill would curtail … Continue Reading
The federal government conducted a search for purposes of the Fourth Amendment when it attached a GPS tracking device to a suspect’s car and used the device to track the suspect’s movements for 28 days, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday. All nine justices voted to uphold the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals … Continue Reading
Today, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) sent letters to Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Liebowitz and OnStar executive director Linda Marshall regarding recent controversial changes to OnStar’s privacy policies. OnStar provides in-vehicle GPS navigation, emergency response, and concierge services for millions of U.S.-manufactured vehicles. In providing these services, OnStar collects data regarding customers’ location, speed, driving … Continue Reading
As we previously noted here and here, locational privacy continues to be an area of ongoing interest. Yesterday, a New Jersey appeals court ruled that a husband’s privacy rights were not invaded when his wife put a GPS tracking device in his car. In Villanova v. Innovative Investigations, Inc., A-0654-10T2 (N.J. Sup. Ct. App. Div. … Continue Reading
In light of the number of privacy and data security-related bills currently being considered by Congress, we thought it might be helpful to provide a roundup of the legislation introduced or circulated to date: Comprehensive privacy legislation: BEST PRACTICES Act, H.R. 611 (Rep. Rush): introduced Feb. 10, 2011. Referred to the House Subcommittee on Commerce, … Continue Reading
By Elizabeth Katz Twenty-five years after authoring the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”), Senator Patrick Leahy has introduced a bill, the ECPA Amendments Act of 2011 (S. 1011), that is intended to adapt the Act to the privacy and security challenges of the 21st Century. The bill would amend Title II of ECPA, commonly called the … Continue Reading
By Elizabeth Katz As Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy prepares to introduce legislation to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Brookings Institution today held a panel on ECPA reform issues. The discussion began with a keynote address delivered by George Washington University Law School professor Orin S. Kerr. Following Mr. Kerr’s remarks, four … Continue Reading
CNET reports that Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) is calling on the FTC to investigate Apple’s privacy practices, particularly with respect to location-based services. In a letter to FTC Chairman John Leibowitz, Inslee expressed concern about users’ lack of awareness of “location-aware technology.” He writes: “Citizens expect to be able to know the extent to which … Continue Reading
Although concerns about locational privacy are hardly new, recent developments suggest that policymakers and government officials are taking a close look at the privacy issues raised when geolocation data is collected via smartphones. The Wall Street Journal reports that a federal grand jury in New Jersey is probing the data collection practices of smartphone applications. According … Continue Reading
