The United States Supreme Court last week ruled in ‘Carpenter v. United States’ that the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution requires law enforcement agencies to obtain a search warrant to access individuals’ cellphone location history. There are multiple reasons why so many people are calling this a landmark case. In an opinion The Washington Post published today, writer Timothy Edgar emphasized that just because individuals make a decision to be connected doesn’t mean that they have voluntarily surrendered their right to Constitutional protections. According to Edgar:
The Supreme Court has finally rejected the outdated idea that we voluntarily surrender our privacy simply because we own a digital device.
The ruling also reflects growing awareness of how the digital world has impacted privacy and supports how individuals and businesses are starting to think about it. In an interview last Friday with Scott Budman, Dtex CEO Christy Wyatt told NBC Bay Area affiliate viewers that the SCOTUS’ ruling reflects a “huge shift” towards respecting privacy.
Read the ruling: SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus CARPENTER v. UNITED STATES
Watch the interview: Supreme Court Adopts New Privacy Rules for Cell Tracking
Read Edgar’s full opinion: The Supreme Court just struck a blow against mass surveillance
Other Privacy News
Facebook’s data scandal may not have actually driven users away from the platform or impacted its bottom line. There is no doubt though, the incident, regulations such as the GDPR, and SCOTUS ruling are forcing most businesses to think about whether or not they can continue down the same path when it comes to collecting and sharing data. In an Axios news scoop, writer Kim Hart informs readers that a heavy-hitting group of Silicon Valley tech titans will meet Wednesday in San Francisco to talk about the future or consumer privacy. In Scoop: Silicon Valley execs will meet to discuss privacy, Hart writes:
What’s happening: The Information Technology Industry Council, a Washington trade group that represents major tech companies, organized an all-day meeting to jump-start the conversations.
Members include Facebook, Google, Apple, Salesforce, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Qualcomm, Samsung, Dropbox, and others. ITI expects the meeting to be attended by companies across the industry’s sectors, including hardware, software and device makers — but declined to say which companies would be there.
Dean Garfield, ITI CEO and president, told Axios that tech companies are aware there’s a new sense of urgency around consumer privacy.
“My experience is that they’ve always viewed privacy as a foundational principle, but the question of how do you give meaning to it and talk about it in a way that resonates is now something that’s more pressing,” he said.
Insider Jolts Electric Car Manufacturer Tesla
When Elon Musk informed his employees that one of their own had sabotaged auto maker Tesla, the “insider threat” reality was again amplified across the security community and news media. Many of the news reports alleged that the insider hacked into systems, inserted code designed to exfiltrate data, and that he even hijacked coworkers’ computers to cause what was essentially a data breach. The incident also showed that even the most technologically-advanced organizations in the world are challenged when it comes to defending themselves inside of their perimeters.
There were numerous reports and news stories about the event, including an excellent overview at Dark Reading. In Tesla Employee Steals, Sabotages Company Data, writer Jai Vijayan details the events and provides insights about the insider threat from multiple sources, including findings from the Dtex 2018 Insider Threat Intelligence Report.