The American Civil Liberties Union learned from records from 2009 to 2012 that federal law enforcement has increasingly engaged in monitoring citizen electronic transactions without warrants or accountability. -db From an analysis for the American Civil Liberties Union, September 27, 2012, by Naomi Gilens. Full story
On Wednesday, SB 1434, a bill sponsored by Democratic Senator Mark Leno, passed the Assembly and makes its way to the desk of Governor Jerry Brown. If he signs, California will be the first state to pass a law requiring law enforcement to secure a warrant before using location data from smartphones and other GPS enabled devices. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are co-sponsors of the California legislation. Computerworld
BY DEBORAH FRUIN–A federal district court in Los Angeles has unsealed records related to a government shutdown of a music blog/website, Dajaz1.com, for suspicion of copyright piracy. The unsealing had been requested by FAC, Wired, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Using a forfeiture authority usually invoked to seize cars and houses in drug cases, federal authorities had seized the hip hop website, then avoided a hearing in the matter and refused to give an explanation
The U.S. Court of Appeals from D.C. ruled that interchanges between Google and the National Security Agency on cybersecurity and encryption are not part of the public record. The Electronic Privacy Information Center used a Freedom of Information Act request to seek the records following a cyber attack against Google in 2012. -db From The Blog of Legal Times, May 11, 2012, by Mike Scarcella. Full story
Q: I filed a CPRA request with the city for information on a story that I’m reporting on my blog. I noticed when reviewing commercial warrants that payments were made (nearly $400,000) to a private management company. The town has been giving the public regular financial reports concerning a private country club they purchased, but the aforementioned payments don’t show up on the Treasurer’s report. My CPRA asked for documents supporting the account used that