CPSC 315 Chapter 6

Solove’s Taxonomy of Privacy

1. Information Collection: Activites that gather personal information

2. Information Processing: Activities that store, manipulate, and use personal information that has been collected.

3. Information Dissemination: Activities that spread personal information

4. Invation: Activities that intrude upon a person’s daily life, interrupt someone’s solitude, or interfere with decision-making

Employee Polygraph Protection Act

Prohibits private employers from using lie detector tests under most conditions.

Cannot require test for employment

Exceptions for Employee Polygraph Protection Act

1. Pharmaceutical companies and security firms may give test to certain classes of employees

2. Employers who have suffered a theft may administer tests to reasomable suspects

3. Federal, state, and legal governments exempt-think law enforcement.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act

1. Reduces the amount of public information gathered from children.

2. Online services must gain parental consent before collecting information from children 12 and under

Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act for Health insurance companies

Health insurance companies:

• cannot request genetic information

• cannot use genetic information when making decisions about coverage, rates, etc

• Does not apply to life insurance, disability insurance, or long-term care insurance

Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act for Employers

• Cannot take genetic information into account when hiring, firing, promiting, etc

• Small companies are exempt.

Should police be required to get a search warrant before surveillance of a residence?

Yes. Surveillance of a residence is a serious invasion of privacy and falls under the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches of “houses.” Supreme Court cases like Katz v. United States established that surveillance technologies require a warrant when they violate a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy.

Omstead v United States

year: 1928
U.S Supreme court ruled wiretapping was OK without a search warrant

Federal Communications Act

year: 1934
wiretapping was made illegal without a sear

Nardone v United States

year: 1939
U.S. Supreme Court rules wiretapping was NOT OK without a seach warrant.
The Attorney General declared the FBI would cease wiretapping

The FBI continued to wiretap

Katz V United States

year: 1967

U.S. Supreme Court rules that a search warrant is needed to place a bug

PRISM Program

Allowed the NSA to access email messages and monitor live communications of foreigners outside the U.S.

Electronic Communications Privacy Act

year: 1986
Allows police to attach two kinds of surveillance to a suspects phone line:
1. pen reigster: displays number being dialed

2. Trap-and-trace device: displays callers phone number

Stored Communications Act

year: 1986

Allowed the FBI to access email messages that were more than 180 days old

Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act

year: 1994
Designed to ensure police can still do wiretapping as digital networks are introduced

USA Patriot Act

year: 2001

Gave the government:

1. Greater authority to monitor communications

2. Greater powers to regulate banks

3. Greater border controls

4. New crimes and penalties for terrorist activity

What do critics think about the USA Patriot Act

They say that it undermines the 4th amendment rights.
1. Pen registers on web browsers

2. roving surveillance

3. searches and seizures without warrants

4. warrants issued without need for showing probable cause

Patriot Act Successes

• Charges against 361 individuals

• stops shoe-bomver richard reid

• stops john walker lindh

Patriot Act Failure

• March 11, 2004 bombings in madrid spain

• FBI makes Brandon Mayfield a suspect even tho hes inoccent

Patriot Act renewal

• Nearly all provisions have been made permanent

• four-year sunset clause allowing some acts to be extended:

  • removing wiretaps

  • FBI ability to seize records from financial institutions, libraries, doctors, and businesses

What patriot act renewels have been expired since 2020?

• Allowing business records to be collected for national security

• roving wiretaps

• the lone wolf provision

Privacy Act of 1974

balancied government information needs with individual privacy, allowing people to see and correct their records held by federal agencies, restricting data disclosure without consent

Data Mining

Process of searching through one or more databases looking for patterns or relationships among the data

Judge Robert Bork

Judge Robert Bork was running for US supreme court. During his campaign his rental history was leaked to the press. This led to the enactment of the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act.

The list of rentals was gathered and published by writer Michael Dolan, who workd for Washington D.C’s City Paper

Video Privacy Protection Act

• Videotape service providers cannot disclose rental records without comsumers written consent

• rental stores must destroy personal information related to rentals within a year of when it is no longer needed

Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

• Gave students 18 years and older and parents of younger students the right to:

  • review educational records

  • requesting changes to erroneous records

  • Preventing release of records without permission