Search and seizure in the cloud

Also in the June 2009 issue of the Minnesota Law Review is a Note on applying the Fourth Amendment to privacy in the cloud, where data is stored on distant servers. "With individuals and entities increasingly using the cloud to conduct business and store data, it is important to have a clear framework within which the government may conduct a search that meets constitutional requirements." The author proposes that courts should:

• Recognize society's reasonable expectation of privacy in the cloud as the court did with the telephone in Katz
• Adopt the virtual-container theory to standardize privacy appraisals in the cloud, and recognize virtual-concealment efforts
• Treat cloud service providers as virtual landlords and apply the third-party doctrine narrowly to cloud content

Note, Defogging the Cloud: Applying Fourth Amendment Principles to Evolving Privacy Expectations in Cloud Computing (pdf, 35pp/236kB), Minnesota Law Review, June 2009

Recent CRS reports

Recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports from Open CRS:

Tsunami Detection and Warnings for the United States, RL34506 (pdf, 18pp/436kB), Sept. 25, 2008

This report discusses several components of tsunami warning in the U.S., among them:

• National Tsunami Warning Program (NTWP) consists of two tsunami warning centers located in Palmer, AK, and Ewa Beach, HI
• National Tsunami Hazards Mitigation Program (NTHMP) provides education and outreach through the TsunamiReady program
• Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) buoys; 39 DART buoys form the U.S. tsunami early warning network
• Global Seismographic Network (GSN) and Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) identify earthquakes for possible onset of tsunamis

Do Not Mail Initiatives and Their Potential Effects: Possible Issues for Congress, RL34643 (pdf, 29pp/176kB), Sept. 24, 2008

Since 2007, according to CRS, 19 states have introduced legislation to create Do Not Mail registries to curb the delivery of junk mail. Here CRS examines possible effects of state registries on the environment, the economy, constitutional issues.

The report includes a table of 12 states that had DNM legislation pending in 2008, Hawaii being one of them. Hawaii's SB908 and HB2592, were introduced in 2007 and 2008, respectively, "to establish a state 'Do-not-mail' registry permitting residential residents--but not commercial entities--to opt-out of receiving certain unsolicited mail." Both bills died.


Food and Agricultural Imports from China, RL34080 (pdf, 24pp/152kB), Sept. 26, 2008

Health and Safety Concerns Over U.S. Imports of Chinese Products: An Overview, RS22713 (pdf, 6pp/76kB), Sept. 22, 2008

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Dept. of Agriculture (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have primary responsibility for the nation's food regulatory system. The first report discusses last month's melamine-contaminated milk crisis in China and its implications for exports, bilateral efforts to address Chinese food safety in U.S. imports, and Congressional bills related to food import safety.

The second report is an overview of consumer (toys, tires) and food products that have caused U.S. concerns, Chinese initiatives to improve product safety, bilateral agreements to address health and safety issues, and economic implications such as protectionism and foreign investment in China.


Net Neutrality: Background and Issues, RS22444 (pdf, 6pp/76kB), Sept. 16, 2008

Network neutrality is generally the concept of ensuring "unfettered access to the Internet" by regulating owners of Internet networks. CRS notes that the two most common discriminatory actions against net neutrality are "the network providers’ ability to control access to and the pricing of broadband facilities, and the incentive to favor network-owned content, thereby placing unaffiliated content providers at a competitive disadvantage." The report covers actions by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in regulating broadband and Congressional debate and legislation.

You're on YouTube

Note should be taken of a recent federal court for the Southern District of New York ruling (pdf) in the Viacom v. Google litigation. The Electronic Frontier Foundation blogs the story in a July 2 post by EFF staffer, Kurt Opsahl.

Google [is ordered] to produce to Viacom (over Google's objections): all data from the Logging database concerning each time a YouTube video has been viewed on the YouTube website or through embedding on a third-party website.

The Logging database contains: for each instance a video is watched, the unique “login ID” of the user who watched it, the time when the user started to watch the video, the internet protocol address other devices connected to the internet use to identify the user’s computer (“IP address”), and the identifier for the video.

The Net media, Good Morning Silicon Valley, reports that Google's argument (which cited the VPPA, 18 U.S.C. § 2710) "that such a release would represent a massive violation of user privacy was waved away by the judge."

EFF's Opsahl writes:

The Court's erroneous ruling is a set-back to privacy rights, and will allow Viacom to see what you are watching on YouTube. We urge Viacom to back off this overbroad request and Google to take all steps necessary to challenge this order and protect the rights of its users.

related links:

The New York Times initial story, March 14, 2007

Wired blog post, July 2, 2008

TechCrunch blog post, July 3, 2008

L.A. Times Technology blog post, July 3, 2008

Reputation on the Internet

Daniel J. Solove of the George Washington University Law School is the author of The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, the full text of which is available online. The 205-page book was published in October 2007 by Yale University Press.

Solove likens the present state of the Internet to a teenager: "brash, uninhibited, unruly, fearless, experimental, and often not mindful of the consequences of its behavior. And as with a teenager, the Net's greater freedom can be both a blessing and a curse."

In the concluding chapter, "The Future of Reputation," he writes:

Will people be blogging and using social network websites a decade from now? Who knows? . . . The technologies may change, but human nature will remain the same.

Although the Internet poses new and difficult issues, they are variations on some timeless problems: the tension between privacy and free speech, the nature of privacy, the virtues and vices of gossip and shaming, the effect of new technologies on the spread of information, and the ways in which law, technology, and norms interact. New technologies do not just enhance freedom but also alter the matrix of freedom and control in new and challenging ways.

The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet (Yale University Press, October 2007)

Home "visits"

On Nov. 26 the Washington Post reported that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Sanchez v. San Diego (pdf, 49pp), a decision rendered by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Sanchez upheld a program of the San Diego District Attorney whereby its investigators search welfare applicants' homes, unannounced and without warrants, to confirm their eligibility for aid. If they refuse the searches, they are disqualified from benefits.

A New York Times editorial (Nov. 28) was critical of the decision, stating in part:

This week, the Supreme Court let stand a disturbing ruling out of California that allows law enforcement to barge into people's homes without a warrant. The case has not prompted much outrage, perhaps because the people whose privacy is being invaded are welfare recipients, but it is a serious setback for the privacy rights of all Americans.

The editorial quoted from the dissenting opinion of seven judges that the majority decision "strikes an unprecedented blow at the core of Fourth Amendment protections."