Appeals Court Rolls Back Computer Privacy Guidelines

Last year we discussed news of a court ruling that established a set of guidelines for how investigators can enact search warrants involving electronically stored data. Essentially, it required authorities to specify the data for which they were searching, and to take precautions to avoid the collection of unrelated data, whether it was incriminating or not. Now, a federal appeals court has thrown out those guidelines despite agreeing with the conclusion that investigators must only collect data specified in a warrant. Instead, the ruling (PDF) leaves us with a plea for "greater vigilance on the part of judicial officers in striking the right balance between the government’s interest in law enforcement and the right of individuals to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures."

Comments

Re:Abusable

[Cornwallis]

So. Ahhhh....

Hmmm..... Errr......

Where *can* I find "MyGirlfriendThreeMenSomeMudAndABaseballBat.avi"?

Re:Encryption: just goes to show

[Nyder]

All the more reason to start using TrueCrypt now if you haven't already.

Until the cops in the US get the authority to legally compel you to divulge passwords, your computer will be safe from prying eyes.

Ya, about the password. I figure if you use the constitution as a password, there's no way the officials will ever be able to get into it.

Or my something along the lines of "fuck you, you'll never get my password" as the password.

Re:Not sure what the big deal is

[Hylandr]

You have *NO* Idea how badly I want to cross state lines with poultry on my head again.

Oh those were the days...

- Dan.