privacy

Commentators and historians have long recorded the regrettable moments of high-profiled individuals. However, it was not until recently that this kind of record was possible for the everyday person. Two attributes of Internet data made this possible: its permanence and its accessibility. In contrast with the limited distribution and narrow ...

On February 19, 2015, journalist Julia Angwin presented on her recent project as part of the BCLT Lunch Speaker Series. Angwin built her reputation as an investigative journalist in the world of privacy issues when she led a Wall Street Journal series called What They Know. She has also written ...

40 million; the number of credit and debit card numbers stolen in the Target data breach of 2013. 200 million; the number of dollars credit unions and community banks spent reissuing only half of them. 1-3 million; the estimated number of these cards’ data successfully sold on the black market ...

Earlier this week, we wrote about how the government can lawfully compel a person to unlock their smart phone with the Touch ID feature (if the feature is enabled). Recently, Fitbit has been in the news because the popular fitness tracker device is being used as evidence in a Canadian ...

You rush into work one morning, coffee and briefcase in hand, barely making it into the cramped elevator as the doors close. You overhear someone in the back whisper “That’s her, she’s the one in the tank top in her profile pic.” You wonder who they’re gossiping about but are ...

For many smartphone users, passwords and passcodes have become a thing of the past. Since late 2013, Apple iPhone users have been able to access their phones by simply applying their stored fingerprint to the Home Button. Many Android devices offer the same feature. And now, Touch ID does more ...

Berkeley Center for Law and Technology’s Seventh Annual Privacy Lecture was held on October 6, 2014, on Berkeley Law School’s campus. Moderated by Paul Schwartz, the presentation began with Ross Anderson presenting his recent paper, Privacy versus government surveillance – where network effects meet public choice. The panel continued with responses ...

The Ninth Circuit’s 2012 decision in United States v. Nosal created a circuit split regarding the interpretation of the phrase “exceeds authorized access” in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The Ninth Circuit (since joined by the Fourth Circuit) held that one “exceeds authorized access” to a computer by ...

The Copyright Alert System (CAS) was rolled out in late February 2013. CAS constitutes the United States realization of the international concept of “graduated response programs:” frameworks for media owners to address alleged online copyright infringements with computer users through their Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Key features of CAS – ...

The Fourth Amendment generally requires that government searches must be reasonable, which typically can be satisfied via a warrant. Searches at the border, however, traditionally occupy a special status in connection with U.S. Fourth Amendment law. Recognizing that “the government’s interest in preventing the entry of unwanted persons and effects is at ...