Glenn Harlan Reynolds: 5 Privacy Laws We Should Put on the Books Right Now

Posted: April 8, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere, Science & Technology | Tags: Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Glenn Reynolds, Metadata, National Security Agency, Rick Perry, Texas, United States, United States Postal Service |1 Comment

big-brother-poster As we hear more and more about government spying at the federal, state, and local levels, it’s time to start thinking about what to do if we want to protect our privacy. Instapundit blogger and PopMech contributor Glenn Harlan Reynolds outlines the new rules he’d like to see. 1. Treat Email More Like Mail By statute, law enforcement can’t open domestic communications through U.S. mail without a court order. But under the federal law covering email—the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which dates back to 1986—they can obtain many of your emails without a warrant, merely

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by subpoenaing the email provider. Texas has passed, and Gov. Rick Perry has signed, a state law requiring a warrant for access to email content. This is a good start, but I’d like to see something similar at the federal level. 2. Protect Metadata The National Security Agency (NSA) and other government agencies record cellphone and email metadata—who you call, when you call, how long you call, your location when making the call—on the same basis. Likewise, many local police departments are tracking license plates around town and building databases of who goes where. Even the U.S. Postal Service records its metadata without a warrant. Because so-called cover information such as the addressee’s address, return address, and postmark is recorded on every piece of mail and postal employees can see it, the information is considered public. Yes, all of this is “public” information, in a sense. Anyone can see your license plate when you drive by, or take note when you’re parked on the street. But when all that information is collected, it produces a surprisingly detailed picture of your life, one that’s not available to the average passerby. A recent Stanford experiment illustrated that phone metadata gives away a lot of information. Jonathan Mayer, the graduate student leading the study, remarked: “We found that phone metadata is unambiguously sensitive, even in a small population and over a short time window. We were able to infer medical conditions, firearm ownership, and more, using solely phone metadata.” We’ve seen some hints that courts may be more willing to police this sort of thing, but there’s no reason to wait: We could just as easily set limits on the collection and use of metadata by statute. 3. Curtail Those Click-Through Agreements Government spying isn’t the only kind of digital spying. Businesses gather a lot of information from users, which they then sell or share with the government without the users’ input. Sure, you probably gave them blanket permission by agreeing to one of those license agreements that no one reads, but it’s doubtful that that permission was knowing….read more… Popular Mechanics