AP: Police Bypassed Subpoenas, Got Phone Data From Brokers

Why should you be concerned about the aggregation and commercial availability of your personal information? Because you have little Constitutional protection from the state accessing such "third party" data, as this AP report makes all to clear: Numerous federal and…

Hillary Clinton Calls for Privacy Bill of Rights

My U.S. Senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is calling for the creation of a "privacy bill of rights" to protect people's personal data. From the AP wire: ''Modern life makes many things easier and many things easier to know, and yet…

The Twin Dangers of the National Surveillance State

Please read Jack Balkin's excellent post on the The Twin Dangers of the National Surveillance State: The twin dangers of national security displacing the criminal justice system and the criminal justice becoming increasingly like the national security system are consequences…

Iraqi Constitution Would Ban NSA Surveillance Program

Jack Balkin points out that under the new Iraqi constitution (passed with the support of the Bush administration), the NSA spying program would be unconstitutional. According to Article 38:The freedom of communication, and mail, telegraphic, electronic, and telephonic correspondence, and…

Gore to Speak About Domestic Spy Program

With end of semester craziness, the holidays, and the transition to this new website, I wasn't able to blog about the revelations that the President authorized the NSA to engage in domestic surveillance without proper warrants. [See Bruce Schneier's excellent…

Call to add privacy rights to Japan’s constitution

ComuterWorld reports that a senior legislator in Japan is calling for the addition of data privacy rights to the country's constitution:An influential Japanese politician earlier this month called for the right to information privacy to be added to the country's…