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Federal Government Circumventing Fourth Amendment by Buying Data From Data Brokers by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso Federal law enforcement agencies have been paying private companies for the information they collect on users—information for which agents would need a warrant to collect themselves. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in …
How Online Behavioral Ads Fuel Mass Surveillance by Michael Thompson by Michael Dean Thompson It is no secret that digital advertising companies profit handsomely by accessing and exploiting the private information of consumers. What may be surprising, however, is the increasing efficiency with which these companies collect, distribute, and monetize …
Article • March 15, 2025 • from CLN April, 2025
Government Hacks Computers to Thwart Hackers by James Mills by James Mills Did you know the federal government has the ability to access a virtually unlimited range of computers—including laptops, workstations, and library terminals—if it so desires? This revelation comes after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) announced in a …
D.C. Circuit Holds Compelling Suspect to Unlock Cellphone With Thumbprint Is ‘Testimonial’ Act and Violates Fifth Amendment Privilege Against Self-Incrimination by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that a defendant being compelled to provide a thumbprint constitutes a testimonial act …
Article • January 15, 2025 • from CLN January, 2025
Protect Yourself Against Police Invasion of Your Cellphone by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney In Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373 (2014), the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the reality that the amount of data people keep on their cellphones is almost beyond measure. The Riley Court ruled that police must …
Article • December 15, 2024 • from CLN January, 2025
Recovering Deleted Messages by Michael Thompson by Michael Dean Thompson It should come as no surprise that anything you delete on your device is not necessarily gone. Cops using forensic software can often look into a device’s primary storage (as well as cloud storage) and pull up information that the …
Delaware Supreme Court: Counsel Ineffective for Failing to Challenge Search of Cellphone Where Consent Was Ambiguous and Warrant Constituted a General Warrant by Sam Rutherford by Sam Rutherford The Supreme Court of Delaware granted postconviction relief to a prisoner because his defense attorney provided ineffective assistance of counsel by failing …
The FBI Really Doesn’t Want the Public to Know About This Surveillance Device by Michael Thompson by Michael Dean Thompson The American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) successfully sued for access to FBI information regarding cell-site simulators (“CSS”). For years, the FBI has used nondisclosure agreements (“NDA”) to hide their use …
Dogs Are Sniffing Out Electronics by Michael Thompson by Michael Dean Thompson Cops have found themselves challenged by the decreasing size of electronic devices and the correlated increase in the ease of hiding them. To assist them, they have begun using dogs to sniff out a key chemical used to …
Article • July 15, 2024 • from CLN July, 2024
Rethink Googling That Video of Big Bird Teaching Your Child the Letter ‘B’—You Might Be Caught in a Federal Dragnet by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney   According to Techdirt, the federal government is obtaining court orders forcing Google and others to provide user ID information of people accessing innocuous …
Stinging Back: Resisting Government Surveillance of Cellphones by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso A cell-site simulators (“CSS”)—often referred to as a “Stingray” device, after a popular brand—is one of the newest and most controversial law enforcement tools since the introduction of the wiretap. Its use represents the intersection of …
Does the Fourth Amendment Protect Cellphones at the Border? by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by …
Utah Supreme Court Announces Communication of Cellphone Passcode Protected by Fifth Amendment and Rules Advising Jury of Defendant’s Refusal to Disclose Passcode Violates Privilege Against Compelled Self-Incrimination by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso In a case of first impression, the Supreme Court of Utah held that production of a …
Cellebrite Asks Law Enforcement Clients to Keep Its Phone Hacking Tech Secret by Jo Ellen Nott by Jo Ellen Nott Cellebrite—the Israeli digital intelligence company that provides data extraction tools for law enforcement to collect, analyze, and manage digital data—is asking its customers to keep the technology a secret. For …
Geofence Warrants: The Mass Location Surveillance and Privacy Threat Created by Google May Be Eliminated by Its Creator by Anthony Accurso by Anthony W. Accurso The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable …
Study Reveals Important Details About iPhone’s Building Level Registration Reliability by Jo Ellen Nott by Jo Ellen Nott In a stabbing case in The Hague, Netherlands, a suspect facing charges in the deadly incident denied his involvement. Wanting to prove his presence at the crime scene, the Dutch police turned …
New Service Highlights Cellphone Privacy Issues by Michael Thompson by Michael Dean Thompson Corporations have turned cellphones into mobile snooping devices that monetize consumer habits and daily activity. A new service, Pretty Good Phone Privacy (“PGPP”), addresses some of the privacy concerns built into the cellular system. The problem comes down …
New English Law Allows Government to View a Year’s Worth of Browsing History from an Individual Approved by a Judge by Wired reported on May 15, 2023, that law enforcement actors in the United Kingdom have decided to move forward with introducing vast new surveillance capabilities on a national scale. …
Article • June 15, 2023 • from CLN July, 2023
Police Can Get More From Your Phone Than You May Believe by Michael Thompson by Michael Dean Thompson Few of us would not feel violated to learn that our spouse or partner has been digging through our phone. Imagine if they were to use that data to analyze where we’ve …
Across the Nation, Cops Use ‘Fog Reveal’ to Track More Than 250 Million Mobile Devices by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney According to a September 2022 report from AP News, law enforcement agencies from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina are using an obscure cellphone tracking tool known as …
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