The week before last, the Roberts Supreme Court uncharacteristically handed down a decision
that doesn't radically infringe on civil liberties. The justices
unanimously ruled that police overshot their authority by planting a GPS
device on suspected drug dealer Antoine Jones' car without a warrant,
tracking his movements for over a month. For now, Americans can rest
assured that police can't secretly tag them -- at least without a
warrant.
At the same time, privacy advocates pointed out -- and some of the justices admitted -- that the court's majority opinion in US vs. Jones
completely skirted more pressing privacy issues. The problem, the
majority argued, was that police had trespassed on Jones' private
property by planting a GPS device on his car. The majority opinion did
not address whether or not it's okay for law enforcement to use a
sophisticated surveillance technology to log someone's movements for a
whole month without a warrant.
In
separate, concurring opinions Justices Alito and Sotomayor both warned
of the multitude of surveillance technologies that do not require
intrusion onto private property to trample privacy rights. Here's a
(non-comprehensive) breakdown of existing or impending technologies that
make our privacy protections wildly outdated.
1. Everything you use, all the time.
READ MORE
No comments:
Post a Comment