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."

Well... we're boned.

[AltairDusk]

Nice to know our latest appointee to the Supreme Court is looking out for our privacy rights.

From TFA:

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, as solicitor general last year, had urged the court to reverse itself amid complaints that federal prosecutions were being complicated, and computer searches were grinding to a halt, because of the detailed guidelines.

Re:Not sure what the big deal is

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't have anything on my computer but music, email and movies. I don't break the law.

If you're an American, the USC is about 16,500 pages long:

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Code

The tax code is about 3,500 pages. And that's just the US federal stuff, you also have to worry about state laws (at least in a criminal capacity). You can also be fined at the county and municipal level.

I'm sure you're contravening something. Heck, there are people who have been convicted of owning a lobster:

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik#t=6m30s

A few useful links for disk encryption

[BenEnglishAtHome]

Whole disk encryption needs to become mainstream. There are many approaches. Here are a few useful links.

If you want your OS to encrypt everything, Fedora [linuxbsdos.com] makes it easy. So does Ubuntu. [ubuntuforums.org]

If you want an add-on software package, PGP [pgp.com] works well. In a slightly more involved way, so does Truecrypt. [truecrypt.org]

If you prefer a hardware solution, you can adapt regular, off-the shelf drives with an encryptor such as the Deskcrypt. [istorage-uk.com] Fully-encrypted hard drives are available from most vendors, too, but the ones I've found most generally useful (as in, "compatible with every other sort of hardware") are the Eclypt models from Stonewood. [stonewood.co.uk]

I have owned and used all the products above and like them very much. If you feel different, feel free to Google things like "Momentus FDE" or "WinMagic" or "Guardian Edge Hard Drive" for other vendors and approaches. Take whatever path seems most reasonable and logical to you.

But for God's sake, would everyone please start encrypting your drives? That's not everything you need to do. It's just a minimal first step toward personal security. But it's a start.