Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Interesting group. Interesting question.
Orin Kerr writes:
Last Friday, I spoke on a very interesting panel about how the Fourth Amendment should respond to new technologies hosted by the Heritage Foundation. The panelists were Miguel Estrada of Gibson Dunn, Susan Herman of the ACLU and Brooklyn Law, and me. Paul Larkin of the Heritage Foundation moderated. You can watch the panel here:

(Related)
You’re going to want to read this exchange:

(Related) Same interesting question?
Charlie Savage reports:
A bipartisan group of senators on the Judiciary Committee on Monday signed a letter asking the inspector general for the intelligence community, I. Charles McCullough III, to carry out a “full accounting” of how the government is carrying its surveillance powers.
Read more on The New York Times.


I submit that we don't really understand this technology stuff.
49% of the Links Cited in Supreme Court Decisions Are Broken


Of course it's confusing. It's a politician being “helpful.”
Tim Cushing writes:
Senator Mike Rogers heads up the House Intelligence Committee and he, along with Dutch Ruppersberger, have taken a squarely antagonistic stance against any other members of Congress who wish to do perform the oversight duties they’re tasked with. This attitude has resulted in a wholly uninformed Congress which relies on the Intelligence Committee to disseminate information on surveillance programs.
Read more on TechDirt.


Anything new?
Hanni Fakhoury writes:
As the highest court in Massachusetts considers whether cell-site data is private in the context of the Fourth Amendment, we filed an amicus brief arguing that when the police want to be able to recreate your every step—figuring out your patterns of movement, where you’ve been and with whom—they must obtain a search warrant.
Read more on EFF.


This can't work, can it?
Governor Jerry Brown has signed SB-568 into law. The bill has sometimes been referred to as the online child privacy “eraser” bill because it requires web site operators to allow minors to remove information. There are exemptions, but here’s a portion of the text:
22581. (a) An operator of an Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application directed to minors or an operator of an Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application that has actual knowledge that a minor is using its Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application shall do all of the following:
(1) Permit a minor who is a registered user of the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application to remove or, if the operator prefers, to request and obtain removal of, content or information posted on the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application by the user.
(2) Provide notice to a minor who is a registered user of the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application that the minor may remove or, if the operator prefers, request and obtain removal of, content or information posted on the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application by the registered user.
(3) Provide clear instructions to a minor who is a registered user of the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application on how the user may remove or, if the operator prefers, request and obtain the removal of content or information posted on the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application.
(4) Provide notice to a minor who is a registered user of the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application that the removal described under paragraph (1) does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information posted on the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application by the registered user.


So we may someday have a defibrillator App, but not if I can randomly use it on my students?
Toni Clarke reports:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued final rules governing the development of mobile medical apps, saying it will focus its oversight on those products that have the potential to harm consumers if they do not function properly.
The rules, announced on Monday, come more than two years after the FDA released draft guidance in which it proposed regulating any mobile app deemed to be a medical device.
Read more on Reuters.


For my Computer Security students.
Cybersecurity: Authoritative Reports and Resources
Cybersecurity: Authoritative Reports and Resources. Rita Tehan, Information Research Specialist, September 20, 2013
“Cybersecurity vulnerabilities challenge governments, businesses, and individuals worldwide. Attacks have been initiated by individuals, as well as countries. Targets have included government networks, military defenses, companies, or political organizations, depending upon whether the attacker was seeking military intelligence, conducting diplomatic or industrial espionage, or intimidating political activists. In addition, national borders mean little or nothing to cyberattackers, and attributing an attack to a specific location can be difficult, which also makes a response problematic. Congress has been actively involved in cybersecurity issues, holding hearings every year since 2001. There is no shortage of data on this topic: government agencies, academic institutions, think tanks, security consultants, and trade associations have issued hundreds of reports, studies, analyses, and statistics.”
Legislation”
Executive Orders and Presidential Directives”
Data and Statistics”
Cybersecurity Glossaries”
CRS Reports by Topic”
Related Resources: Other Websites”


What happens if Google wins?
Judge appears to back Google's defense of digital books project
A U.S. judge made comments Monday that suggest favor for Google's defense of its digital books project, which could hobble an authors group's effort to stop it.
… During a hearing in New York on Monday, Circuit Judge Denny Chin said Google's fair use defense hinged on whether the project "is a benefit to society," according to a Reuters' account of the hearing. Chin listed several examples how the book-scanning project has helped people find information, including his own law clerks.
"Aren't these transformative uses, and don't they benefit society?" Chin asked.
Edward Rosenthal, a lawyer representing the authors, said the project "may benefit society in some instances" but argued that it should be the copyright holder who decides whether the work is displayed.


For all my students... You can look at 'rights to privacy' in 139 constitutions.
Explore the world’s constitutions with a new online tool
Official Google Blog: “Constitutions are as unique as the people they govern, and have been around in one form or another for millennia. But did you know that every year approximately five new constitutions are written, and 20-30 are amended or revised? Or that Africa has the youngest set of constitutions, with 19 out of the 39 constitutions written globally since 2000 from the region? The process of redesigning and drafting a new constitution can play a critical role in uniting a country, especially following periods of conflict and instability. In the past, it’s been difficult to access and compare existing constitutional documents and language—which is critical to drafters—because the texts are locked up in libraries or on the hard drives of constitutional experts. Although the process of drafting constitutions has evolved from chisels and stone tablets to pens and modern computers, there has been little innovation in how their content is sourced and referenced. With this in mind, Google Ideas supported the Comparative Constitutions Project to build Constitute, a new site that digitizes and makes searchable the world’s constitutions. Constitute enables people to browse and search constitutions via curated and tagged topics, as well as by country and year. The Comparative Constitutions Project cataloged and tagged nearly 350 themes, so people can easily find and compare specific constitutional material. This ranges from the fairly general, such as “Citizenship” and “Foreign Policy,” to the very specific, such as “Suffrage and turnouts” and “Judicial Autonomy and Power.” Our aim is to arm drafters with a better tool for constitution design and writing. We also hope citizens will use Constitute to learn more about their own constitutions, and those of countries around the world.”


For my students. Translate my lectures into plain English.
Google Translate Updates Includes Handwriting Translation and Seven New Languages
Google this week posted a significant update to its powerful and easy to use Google Translate (Free) iOS app, to include handwriting input, seven new languages, and a modern redesign of the user interface.
Google Translate works similar to the Google Search app which allows users to use voice to text technology to get super quick translations between more than 70 languages


For my students
Is College Worth It?
America’s colleges and universities are enduring a crisis of faith among the public. As we wrote last week in The Supersizing of American Colleges, due to a subsidy-fueled spending spree, the cost of college has increased over the past 30 years faster than the price of healthcare, housing, or just about anything else. Tuitions, student debt, and student loan default rates have all skyrocketed, leading indebted graduates to malign their degrees and pundits to argue that college is not worth the price tag.
In contrast, the research on the financial value of a college degree all concurs: A bachelor’s degree is a sound investment whose value is growing. The extra income graduates earn compared to high school graduates more than compensates for the high cost.


I need one! (Works on wine too!)
Spin-chill a beer in 30 seconds with the Beerouette
Perhaps you have experienced the disappointment and despair of plunging your hand into an ice chest and pulling out a still-warm beer. You have a few options. Pop it in the freezer and wait. Plunge it deep into the ice and wait. Or back the Spin Chill Kickstarter and cool off your beer in less than a minute.

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