Takeaways for Week 6

Geo locational privacy; GPS tracking; ALPR technology; Stingrays

-          Article: “U.S. Supreme Court: GPS Trackers Are a Form of Search and Seizure”

·         Placing a tracking device on a car or person is a search and is protected by the Fourth Amendment.

·         Grady, a sex offender, challenged the court’s ruling that he had to wear a tracking device at all times.

·         It’s unclear how the Fourth Amendment interacts with digital technology, and much has to be decided.

·         Wisconsin and North Carolina requires sex offenders to wear GPS tracking devices.

-          Catherine Crump TED Talk: The small and surprisingly dangerous detail the police track about you

·         ALPR technology could let police could know where you go, with whom, and when.

·         These cameras are placed all around America.

·         The technology records much more than data and numbers – it can discover intimate details about you.

·         It stores and collects data.

Class Discussion February 13th:

-          Government tracking reveals a lot more than the typical person would want.

-          GPS tracking is considered a search, and is not protected by the Fourth Amendment without a search warrant.

-          If the individual is a sexual predator, does the State – or society’s – protection trump the individual’s?

·         Should a sexual predator be required to wear ankle bracelets for life? Is this unreasonable?

·         Wisconsin has a law that required convicted sex offenders to wear ankle bracelets for their entire lives, and they determined that this was reasonable because the individuals are a threat to society.

-          There is no definitive ruling on the constitutionality of GPS tracking through ankle bracelets.

-          GPS Tracking of Cars

·         This violates the Fourth Amendment because it is searching the person’s property.

·         Rented cars pose a different argument (it’s not the person’s property, and so how is it a violation?)

-          GPS Phone Tracking

·         We don’t currently have a warrant for accessing phone contents

·         Without a warrant required, all individuals could be tracked.

·         Third Party Doctrine

§  The third party doctrine has been thought by some as outdated because the digital age we live in that requires so much information transfers via third parties.

-          Stingrays

·         Stingrays capture every cellphone within their region of influence; it cannot access only one cellphone at a time, it accesses the entire region.

·         Phones try to find the strongest signal, and mistake stingrays for cell-towers.

·         Stingrays can be avoided by turning off phones completely, but then how does a cellphone benefit you?

·         13 states – including Utah – have banned Stingrays unless you have search warrants.

Class Discussion February 15^th:

-          Question of the Week: Should the US Congress enact a federal law governing the use of ALPR technology? Class unanimously voted “yes.”

·         There has never been a case that directly answered this question.

·         “If there is no trespass, then it does not qualify as a search.” – Antonin Scalia.

·         Reasonable expectation of privacy vs. trespassing on property.

-          What does law enforcement use ALPR technology for?

·         Locates stolen vehicles, discovers traffic violation information, finds out if a person is wanted for a crime

-          What are the uses of ALPR technology where law enforcement is not concerned?

·         Parking management, surveillance cameras, lights, stop lights, restricted access, automatic ticketing, and repossession companies.

-          Creative use of technology

·         Texas has a law that equips police vehicles with credit card readers that allow instant payment of court fines.

·         You must pay on the spot, or be impounded.

·         Vigilant Solutions, a manufacturer of ALPR technology, is giving Texas police free ALPR readers and access to its database of plate images in exchange for a 25% “processing fee” when a person makes a payment. Vigilant gets 25% of the fine.

·         Privacy concern: A lot of smaller law enforcement agencies will know about warrants in other states because ALPR technology covers four to five states.

-          ALPR Class Exercise

·         The University of Utah has an ALPR system that it uses for parking management in lieu of parking passes or stickers.

·         Question: “Develop a policy regarding the use of the system. What privacy and data collection issues do you see, and how would your policy address them?”

§  Is the data kept, and for how long? How long is it retained? Is it shared?

§  Should teachers be allowed access to determine where a student is if he/she misses class?

§  Requirements: data must only be kept for a short period of time; it must be secured from hackers.

-          Utah’s ALPR Law

·         The law only applies to the government.

·         Collection of ALPR data is banned except for protecting public safety.

·         ALPR data is “protected” record.

·         ALPR data may not be preserved for more than 90 days absent court order.

·         The government may not obtain private ALPR data absent a search warrant.