Kansas City Police Say 7M License Plate Shots Showing Date, Time and Location Are a Public Record

In the wake of an American Civil Liberties Union campaign launched this week to determine how much information from automatic vehicle license plate readers is being stored by law enforcement agencies nationally and how the database is being used, police statistics are starting to hit the headlines. In Kansas City,…

Aug 2, 2012 4:32 PM CDT

Twitter General Counsel Acknowledges ‘Mess Up’ in Reporter’s Banishment

Twitter has done an about-face and reinstated the account of a reporter kicked off the website for tweeting the corporate email address of an NBC executive. Twitter and NBC are partnering to share Olympics coverage, the New York Times report at its Media Decoder blog. Twitter suspended the email account…

Aug 1, 2012 3:35 PM CDT

Netflix Notifies Customers of Class Action Settlement; Privacy Groups Will Benefit

Netflix is sending an email to customers notifying them of a $9 million settlement that will benefit nonprofit privacy groups. As part of the settlement, Netflix has agreed to change its data retention policies so it will no longer link customers with their rental histories after one year of canceled…

Aug 1, 2012 2:58 PM CDT

ACLU Asks Law Enforcement Agencies to Explain How Automatic License Plate Reader Data Is Used

The American Civil Liberties Union asked police agencies throughout the country on Monday to provide information about how data from automatic license plate readers in patrol cars and next to roadways is being used. Similar information requests were made by the national ACLU and individual chapters in more than 35…

Aug 1, 2012 1:00 PM CDT

Crashing the Third Party: Experts Weigh How Far the Government Can Go in Reading Your Email

Aug 1, 2012 9:29 AM CDT

Hoist Your Mug: Websites Will Post Your Name and Photo; Others Will Charge You to Remove Them

Aug 1, 2012 7:59 AM CDT

Two Texas Middle School Students Arrested for Creating Fake Facebook Page for Classmate

Two middle school students in Granbury, Texas, have been arrested based on accusations they created a fake Facebook page for a 12-year-old classmate that harmed her reputation. The students, ages 12 and 13, were charged with online impersonation, a third-degree felony, report the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Student Press…

Jul 27, 2012 11:33 AM CDT

Changes Reportedly Make Skype Chats More Accessible to Police

Police who obtain a court order will have greater ability to monitor online Skype chats because of changes made by its new owner, Microsoft. Unnamed industry and government officials say technical upgrades made partly to address outages make possible greater cooperation with law enforcement, the Washington Post reports. Skype calls…

Jul 27, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

Citing Privilege Issues, Cuomo Aides Remove Some AG Documents from Archives

Reporters from the Albany Times Union noticed a curious thing when reviewing archives from the New York attorney general. Documents relating to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s time in the AG’s office were disappearing. The New York Times and the Times Union have the answer to the mystery: Cuomo’s aides…

Jul 24, 2012 3:02 PM CDT

Appeals Court OKs Detective’s Warrantless Use of Suspect’s Seized Cellphone to Text His Contacts

Courts in this country have often equated a cellphone with an address book, as far as listed phone numbers are concerned. And, taking that concept a step further, a number have also OK’d police looking at other information in seized electronic devices. Thus, like the California Supreme Court, appellate courts…

Jul 19, 2012 5:10 PM CDT

Judge Acquits Man Who Stripped Naked in Airport Protest

An Oregon judge has acquitted a Portland man who took off all his clothes at an airport security checkpoint. The defendant, tech consultant John Brennan, testified that he stripped to protest invasive security procedures after he underwent a pat down and a test of the screener’s gloves found nitrates, report…

Jul 19, 2012 12:49 PM CDT

Federal Cameras Are Snapping Time-Stamped Pix of License Plates in 4 Border States

Special surveillance cameras have been installed in four border states that routinely snap time-stamped photos of license plates. Backed by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the cameras take photos that also establish a vehicle’s geographic location. The information collected by the devices will be kept for up to two years…

Jul 11, 2012 6:54 PM CDT

Congressional Inquiry Reveals ‘Explosion in Cellphone Surveillance’

Cellphone carriers responded to 1.3 million law enforcement demands for information in 2011, according to information revealed in a congressional inquiry. The information sought included text messages and caller locations, the New York Times reports. According to the newspaper, the reports from nine carriers “document an explosion in cellphone surveillance…

Jul 9, 2012 1:49 PM CDT

Law School Clinic’s Case Records Not Subject to Open Records Law, NJ Supreme Court Rules

An environmental litigation clinic at Rutgers Law School in Newark does not have to turn over case records under New Jersey’s public records law, the state supreme court has ruled in a unanimous opinion. The decision (PDF) reverses an appeals court ruling that the records had to be disclosed, according…

Jul 6, 2012 2:13 PM CDT

Milking It: Raw Milk Advocates Lose the Battle But Win the War

Jul 1, 2012 8:40 AM CDT