Location Tracking

09/19/2012

When Privacy Gets Personal For Policymakers

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 11:21am

Data from license plate readers in Minnesota was obtained by a St. Paul car dealer using open-records laws, and used to repossess at least one car, according to a recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The article included this amusing tidbit:

When the Star Tribune published data tracking Mayor R.T. Rybak's city-owned car over the past year, the mayor asked police Chief Tim Dolan to make a recommendation for a new policy about data retention.

11/21/2011

License Plate Scanners

License Plate Scanners Logging Our Every Move

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 4:30pm

If we do not limit the use of automated license plate readers, it will represent a significant step toward the creation of a surveillance society in the United States.

10/04/2011

GPS

Tracked: The Supreme Court Shouldn't Let Technology Trump the Constitution

By Catherine Crump, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 12:59pm

This term the Supreme Court will determine if the government needs to establish probable cause and obtain a warrant before attaching a GPS device to a person's car.

06/18/2010

Location Tracking

ACLU Files Brief Against Warrantless Cell Phone Tracking

By Catherine Crump, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 2:27pm

Today the ACLU, the ACLU of Connecticut and the Electronic Frontier Foundation once again took a stand against warrantless cell phone tracking, in a friend-of-the-court brief submitted to a federal judge in Connecticut. Cell phones are not just communications devices, they're tracking devices. Your cell phone provider can generate a continuous stream of location information, and many providers store this information for months or even longer.

09/28/2012

Civil Liberties in the Digital Age

Civil Liberties in the Digital Age: Weekly Highlights (9/28/2012

By Anna Salem, ACLU of Northern California at 2:51pm

In the digital age that we live in today, we are constantly exposing our personal information online. From using cell phones and GPS devices to online shopping and sending e-mail, the things we do and say online leave behind ever-growing trails of personal information. The ACLU believes that Americans shouldn’t have to choose between using new technology and keeping control of your private information. Each week, we feature some of the most interesting news related to technology and civil liberties that we’ve spotted from the previous week.

08/15/2012

Location Tracking

ACLU Sues FBI for New GPS Tracking Memos

By Adrienne Lucas, Legal Intern, Speech, Privacy & Technology Project at 3:32pm

Today the ACLU filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to force the FBI to release two memos guiding the bureau’s policy on GPS tracking. The memos were written in the wake of the Supreme Court’s January decision in U.S. v. Jones, which held that the Fourth Amendment applies when the government secretly attaches a GPS device to a car and tracks its movements. (See today’s legal complaint, our original FOIA request (made July 18), and a blog post we wrote about that request).

07/16/2012

Location Tracking

ACLU Files Brief Opposing Warrantless GPS Searches

By Andrew Crocker, ACLU Intern / Harvard Law School Class of 2013 at 11:09am

In 2010, the FBI attached a GPS device to the car of a man named Fred Robinson and continuously monitored his whereabouts for nearly two months—all without getting a warrant. Now Robinson is on trial, and on Friday, the ACLU and its affiliate, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, filed an amicus brief in his case, United States v. Robinson, which raises important Fourth Amendment issues about police use of GPS trackers for surveillance.

06/14/2012

Location Tracking

DOJ Ducks Oversight On Location Tracking

By Chris Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:17pm

How is the Department of Justice using location tracking? If you were looking for an answer to this simple question, this was not the week. Instead, as Congress attempts to oversee this crucial privacy question, it is getting double talk and stonewalling.

Let’s start with the legal standard the Department is using. Earlier this week Senator Al Franken (D-MN) asked Attorney General Holder to clarify the Department’s position on location tracking. Specifically, he asked why, even though experts agree that the recent Supreme Court case US v. Jones stands for the proposition that law enforcement needs a warrant to place a GPS tracking device on a car, DOJ is arguing in another case for a lower, non-probable cause standard. (In an amicus, the ACLU argued that the Fourth Amendment requires that police obtain a warrant to engage in GPS monitoring.) The Attorney General replied that he wasn’t familiar with the case but agreed with Senator Franken that in interpreting Jones they were “likely to be dealing with a situation where we need a warrant.” This frustrating answer seems aimed at reassuring Congress that Americans’ constitutional rights are being protected while DOJ is arguing precisely the opposite in court.

05/10/2012

Location Tracking

DOJ Cell Phone Tracking: Excellent questions, Senator

By Chris Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:51pm

Sen. Al Franken (D- MN) is trying to get some answers to straightforward questions about cell-phone location tracking. Today, using our recent nationwide FOIA as a jumping off point, he sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking them to provide basic information about a practice that, in the words of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, “generates a precise, comprehensive record of a person’s public movements that reflects a wealth of detail about her familial, political, professional, religious, and sexual associations.”

04/23/2012

Location Tracking

Why Does the Cell Phone Association Oppose Location-Tracking Warrant Requirement?

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 3:13pm

CTIA, the industry association representing wireless phone carriers, is opposing proposed California legislation that would require the police to get a warrant before accessing a person’s location records from a cellphone company.

The association opposes the warrant requirement, and also opposes a requirement that carriers publicly disclose how often and why they share information with law enforcement.

American Civil Liberties Union