Blogs

Jan
30

Wednesday, January 30, 2013, by Ashley McAlarney The NYPD recently announced the pending use of portable radiation scanners on patrol that can “spot concealed guns from a distance.” The scanners interpret terahertz radiation, which naturally emits from people and objects. The devices can “see” past clothing and many other materials other than metals. So they

Jan
30

Tuesday, January 29, 2013, by Virginia Wooten As of this past Sunday, it became illegal to unlock your cell phone.  In essence, this means if you bought a cell phone with one company’s network, then you cannot unlock your phone so that it will work on another company’s network.  This new policy is not retroactive,

Jan
26

Friday, January 25, 2013, by Dylan Novak Many people in the world have an extreme misunderstanding of their right against government searches. The layman often believes that a person is guaranteed the right to privacy by the Constitution, and therefore, the government cannot electronically track a person or look at their personal data. In reality,

Jan
24

Thursday, January 24, 2013, by Neil Barnes Google’s bi-annual transparency report, released this past Wednesday, divulges user data requests Google received from governments and government agencies. Richard Salgado, Google’s legal director for law enforcement and information security, affirmed Google’s commitment to transparency by promising that Google will “keep looking for more ways to inform you

Jan
24

Wednesday, January 23, 2013, by Justin Mann On January 17, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services released a final omnibus rule based on amendments to the HITECH Act.   HHS Director Leon Rodriguez heralded the 562 page document as “the most sweeping changes to the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules since they were first

Jan
21

Monday, January 21, 2013, by Laura Arredondo-Santisteban The First Circuit released a recent opinion addressing issues involving copyright and news photography, arguably refusing to expand the scope of copyright protection to independently existing facts captured by photojournalists. The case Harney v. Sony Pictures Television, Inc. involves a photograph, taken by freelance photographer Donald Harney, for

Jan
18

Friday, January 18, 2013, by Anu Madan On January 11, 2012, software programmer, Internet activist, and computer prodigy Aaron Swartz was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment.  According to New York City’s chief medical examiner, Swartz committed suicide by hanging.  As an advocate for Internet freedom, Swartz strongly believed that information, which could potentially benefit

Jan
18

Thursday, January 17, 2013, by Anne Marie Tosco In January of 2012, the Supreme Court unanimously held that law enforcement could not put a warrantless GPS tracker on a suspect’s car in United States v. Jones. Following the ruling, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act compelling the

Jan
16

Wednesday, January 16, 2013, by Amanda Jones In November the voters in California voted in favor of a proposition which would require registered sex offenders to disclose information concerning their internet usage.  The proposition, termed the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act (“CASE Act”) applies to all those currently on the sex offender registry along with

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