Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/2005/04/25/be-wary-of/
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [Politech] Privacy tip: be wary of Google's "personal history" feature [priv]
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 21:33:57 -0400
From: Peter Swire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 'Declan McCullagh' <[email protected]>
Declan:
The Google "personal history" is basically one more example of stored records that never used to exist.
In family law and civil suits, relevant stored records are highly likely to be included in discovery unless the judge is convinced that the burden (on privacy or the cost of producing the evidence) outweighs the benefit of accurate evidence. So far in the U.S., discovery tends to win.
As for DOJ, they love stored records. The standards under the Stored Communication Act are much lower than the standards for a wiretap. What about when stored telephone calls start to happen much more often, as is likely with VOIP?
That was the subject of a House Judiciary hearing last Thursday, where the so-called "stored voice mail" provision in the Patriot Act, Section 209, turns out to apply to all stored telephone calls. The Committee was surprised to learn how easily the stored phone calls can be seized.
NPR All Things Considered story on stored telephone calls: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4612408
Testimony explaining Section 209: http://www.peterswire.net/swire.house.judiciary.testimony.042105.doc
Audio recording of the entire April 21 hearing is available from the front page of the Center for Democracy & Technology website, www.cdt.org.
Peter
Prof. Peter P. Swire Moritz College of Law of The Ohio State University John Glenn Scholar in Public Policy Research Consultant, Morrison & Foerster, LLP (240) 994-4142, www.peterswire.net
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