Jennifer Granick's blog

Advocates for renewal of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) often argue that the statute poses no more harm to the privacy of innocent Americans than does the Wiretap Act, also known as Title III. After all, when FBI agents are tapping a suspected drug courier’s phones, his friends or mother may also call. How is the FAA any different?

Actually, there are many important differences between Title III, the FAA and even traditional FISA intercept orders. These differences mean that FAA is far more intrusive than Title III and poses a categorically different threat to the privacy of innocent Americans. Read more about FISA Amendments Act Is Way Worse for Privacy Than Title III

Taking a close look at the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act (FAA) renewal helps explain why some lawmakers erroneously believe that the statute only incidentally affects Americans, and can clarify the true effect of the law on communications privacy. Read more about FISA Amendments Act Misconceptions Fueled by Confusion in the Senate Committee Report

Next week, the lame duck Congress will take up the issue of whether to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act (FAA) of 2008. The House of Representatives passed a five year extention, but during the the floor debate on that bill, lawmakers demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding about how the FAA affects the privacy of Americans on American soil. Read more about The FISA Amendments Act Authorizes Warrantless Spying on Americans

Today the Sixth Circuit ruled in United States v. Skinner that police do not need a warrant to obtain GPS location data for mobile phones. Investigators obtained an unspecified court order, but not a warrant, to obtain subscriber information, cell site information, GPS real-time location, and “ping” data regarding two different prepaid cell phone numbers.

The Court does not explain the technology used for tracking the defendant. Read more about UPDATED: Sixth Circuit Cell Tracking Case Travels Down the Wrong Road

From my opinion piece today on CNN: Read more about How to build effective cyber defenses

Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit against the U.S. Government by Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, a now-defunct charity that federal agents said was a terrorist group. Read more about Ninth Circuit Gives Government a Pass On Warrantless Wiretapping

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) criminal prosecution of British citizen Richard O'Dwyer for operating a site called TVShack hit what ought to be a major stumbling block. TVShack allows users to link to other computer servers that host television shows and movies. Clicking on the link will allow the user to watch those videos from those sites in a frame on TVShack. Read more about TVShack Extradition Case Tumbling as Seventh Circuit Holds Linking/Streaming is Lawful

Last week a story appeared in Fortune magazine hypothesizing that Google and Facebook are using cy pres settlements of privacy class actions to improperly channel money to civil liberties groups that reliably support "the tech sector side" in disputes with copyright owners, including my organization, Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society. Read more about No Surprise, CIS Reliably Sides With Users

The revised Cybersecurity Act sponsored by Lieberman and Collins needs work.  It's provisions expand the government's ability to conduct network surveillance and interfere with the egalitarian flow of cybersecurity information.  The proposal should be amended to further narrow and clarify the circumstances under which otherwise illegal wiretapping and surveillance is allowed, to narrow the definition of "countermeasures" to only defensive actions that shield one's own machines, and to encourage declassification and publication of cyberthreat information.   Read more about Revised Cybersecurity Act Needs Amendments for Privacy, Security

Senators Lieberman and Collins have just released a revised version of cybersecurity legislation proposed earlier this summer. Read more about New Cybersecurity Bill Available

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act ("CISPA") is the latest example of a depressingly common situation in Washington DC -- well-meaning legislators unfamiliar with technology try to rush through a statute about a high-profile Internet issue (here, cybersecurity). Proponents of the bill say they want to faciliate information sharing between the federal government and the private sector. What they don't seem to understand is that existing laws already permit most kinds of cybersecurity information sharing. Read more about The Unintended Consequences of CISPA

The House Judiciary Committee is considering a bill (.pdf) to amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 USC 1030. Read more about Draft Bill to "Fix" CFAA Won't

The recent Department of Justice decision to indict Megaupload for copyright infringement and related offenses raises some very thorny questions from a criminal law perspective. A few preliminaries: I’m responsible for the musings below, but I thank Robert Weisberg of Stanford Law School for taking the time to talk through the issues and giving me pointers to some relevant cases. Also, an indictment contains unproven allegations, and the facts may well turn out to be different, or to imply different things in full context.

DMCA SAFE HARBOR: BELIEVE IT AND IT WILL BECOME REAL: As a matter of criminal law, the discussion of whether Megaupload did what it needed to do to qualify for the DMCA Safe Harbor misses the point. Did they register an agent? Did they have a repeat infringer policy? These are all interesting CIVIL questions. But from a criminal law perspective, the important question is did Defendants BELIEVE they were covered by the Safe Harbor? This is because criminal infringement requires a showing of willfulness. The view of the majority of Federal Courts is that “willfulness” means a desire to violate a known legal duty, not merely the will to make copies. Read more about Megaupload: A Lot Less Guilty Than You Think

Happy new year, Friends. It is starting out to be a great 2012 for me. I've taken a position as General Counsel for Worldstar LLC and its flagship website worldstarhiphop.com (WSHH), voted top hip hop and urban culture website two years running by BET. In addition to the website, Worldstar operates a talent agency, video production company, dating site and is growing rapidly. They were a client of mine at ZwillGen PLLC, so I'm honored and thrilled to come on board full time.

Additionally, my new position allows me to continue work on the internet freedom and privacy issues so important to me: electronic surveillance, government privacy, computer security, coder's rights and free speech . Read more about New Year, New Job