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Here’s How Authorities Can Legally Spy on Your Digital Life (And Congress Could Make It Easier)

Nov. 20, 2012 1:52pm Liz Klimas

Senate to Vote on an Electronic Privacy Bill Rewritten to Allow for More Warrantless Digital Data Access

(Image: Shutterstock.com.)

There is frequently talk of warrantless spying on citizen communications and online data, but what about how the government and law enforcement can track people — legally? With the scandal between the former CIA Director Gen. David Patreaus and his former mistress Paula Broadwell coming to light thanks to content stored in an email account, many have begun to wonder about the privacy of their own communications.

Tech experts say it really comes down to outdated laws. Laws which Congress is expected to update soon, but this update might not be in favor of more privacy.

TheBlaze spoke with “ethical hacker” Michael Gregg, the COO of Superior Solutions and author of a dozen IT security books, who said most people have no idea how much information about them is readily available in the digital age.

“It’s not the 1990s anymore. We’re in a Brave New World.”

The scarier part though is when people don’t even care. As Chris Weber with Casaba, a security consulting firm, said in an email, the sentiment of many regarding surveillance of their communications is that they don’t care since they’re not doing anything bad.

“They failed to see the bigger problem here, as it wasn’t about your personal business, it was a larger erosion of civil liberty, and a right to privacy,” Weber said.

The laws allowing for this sort of information spying were developed in the days of landline telephones and when cloud computing might have been considered a form of technology-inspired daydreaming. The main law governing the privacy of electronic communications was signed by in the 1980s by President Ronald Reagan. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act allows a federal prosecutor — not a judge with the authority to issue a warrant — to approve a subpoena giving authorities access to electronic communications six months and older.

Many of the laws governing how authorities can obtain what can also vary by state. For example, those in the states governed by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals must obtain a warrant before seeking out emails. Here’s a brief rundown of how your digital movements can be obtained though:

Cell phones: Cell phones can be tracked easily when authorities issue a subpoena to cellphone service providers for data that can triangulate the movements of a person’s phone, if they are already part of a criminal investigation. Many apps on smartphones also track location data. Gregg explained that many people don’t read privacy policies or understand that their GPS location data could be collected. In the policies for many of these apps, they state that they will comply with proper requests made by law enforcement for information.

Landlines: Perhaps an oldie, but still worth mentioning, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act requires telephone companies to make it easy for the authorities to wiretap lines, if necessary.

Emails and the web: Google’s report on the amount of requests the government makes for information is an indication of its increasing interest of electronic information. In the first six months of this year, it make 7,969 requests for data of Google users in the United States — the company complied with 90 percent of these requests. The number of requests made has been increasing each year (see the graph below). Cloud computing and social media site are also changing the game because once your information is stored on a server, it is subject to their rules and regulations should authorities request it. Here’s how the ACLU put it in a recent blog post:

Webmail providers like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft retain login records (typically for more than a year) that reveal the particular IP addresses a consumer has logged in from. Although these records reveal sensitive information, including geo-location data associated with the target, U.S. law currently permits law enforcement agencies to obtain these records with a mere subpoena—no judge required.

This graph shows the requests made from many world governments to Google for user data. (Image: Google)

“People have been concerned about the privacy of communications since writing began,” Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center Marc Rotenberg said to TheBlaze in an email.

Although current federal law seeks to protect the privacy of emails, technology and business practices have “outpaced the law,” according to Rotenberg.

“[I]t is necessary to update the law and ensure that private communications will be protected,” Rottenberg wrote.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said he wanted to update this law to require a probable-cause warrant for non-public Internet communications. Last month, Leahy went as far to say that the bill would “[provide] enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by [...] requiring that the government obtain a search warrant.”

But CNET reported Tuesday that Leahy has rewritten the bill in response to concerns from law enforcement to provide even more surveillance capabilities than before. Here’s more from CNET:

Leahy’s rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans’ e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.

[...]

Leahy’s modified bill retains some pro-privacy components, such as requiring police to secure a warrant in many cases. But the dramatic shift, especially the regulatory agency loophole and exemption for emergency account access, likely means it will be near-impossible for tech companies to support in its new form.

CNET reported this bill is expected to see a vote in the Senate next week.

In the mean time though, Superior Solutions’ Gregg has some tips for protecting your online movements. He said at this point, people need to employ their own level of privacy protection. He said using an encrypted email service or use of VPN while online is beneficial, especially if you’re on an unsecure wireless network. Gregg said, if at all possible, avoid free, unsecure wireless Internet, like that provided in cafes or hotels, and instead use a hot spot device or phone tethering service instead.

Gregg also advocated for more sites using cookies to enable a “do not track” opt-out feature. Most sites with an “opt out” feature though require the user to manually choose to do so and won’t automatically enable it.

Update: According to a separate post by CNET, Leahy tweeted that he would not support the exceptions reported earlier. Here’s more:

A note from Leahy’s Twitter account added: “Technology has created vacuum in privacy protection. Sen. Leahy believes that needs to be fixed, and #ECPA needs privacy updates.” That’s a reference to the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which currently does not require that police always obtain a warrant for the contents of e-mail and other communications.

This revised position will come as a relief to privacy advocates and business lobbyists, who have been scrambling since last week to figure out how to respond to Leahy’s revamped legislation. Some portions would have imposed new restrictions on law enforcement, while others would lessen existing ones, making the overall bill unpalatable to many groups.

Featured image via Shutterstock.com.

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Comments (59)

Seymour
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 8:29pm
Oh this is rich…..say DC, who do you think provides your bandwidth pipes and provisions DOD, DOJ, DHLS and on and on? People, this is the administration that thinks a spectrometer is a telescope. This is the same administration that was going to roll out LightSquared communications to 108 million people until the DOD told them that our planes would be flying into mountains if they used this specific spectrum of which LightSquared was designed for, this specific spectrum and Obama almost had this completed. I wouldn’t be too worried about this people. When our IT folk’s complete meetings with the FCC or net policy representative’s it takes anywhere from 3-5 days to find those IQ points lost in government translation which happens to any private sector CTO/CIO in this context. They act as though created fabric integrated servers then come back to the table with a burlap bag. True story so yeah, smart as a pair of loafers.

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- Chi_Chi
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 6:18am
  There is no privacy anymore. Read fresh political commentary at: http://smallcraftadvisorychronicles.blogspot.com/
  
  Report this comment
- tdunn626
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 2:47pm
  We do value using the internet to connect with others and feel less isolated in a country being run largely by Obama and his czars and other appointees.
  
  I would suggest that we all consider the following:
  
  President Obama has ordered the Federal Communications Commission to adopt regulations giving the federal government control of the Internet and its contents, including providing Obama with a kill switch that gives him authority to shut down the Internet if he sees fit. This is in direct violation of a decision by the United States Supreme Court that the FCC has no Constitutional authority to control the Internet.
  
  Eleven (11) other impeachable offenses committed by the president since his reign began are listed at
  
  http://redflagnews.com/opinion/obamas-impeachable-offenses-updated-by-michael-connelly-jd-carrollton-tx
  
  entitled, UPDATE: ‘Obama’s Impeachable Offenses’ By Michael Connelly, J.D.
  of November 11, 2012
  
  Report this comment
Secret Squirrel
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 7:23pm
.
I’ll be the first in the re-education camp.
I’m hoping for a nice view, close to the razor wire.

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- michaelmoron
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 7:50pm
  The International Banksters have already conned the Public into using Plastic instead of cash,
  Under the complete guise of it being safer.
  
  They made you GIVE UP YOUR 4th Amendment Rights !!!!
  
  I will explain.
  
  You go to a restaurant. You pay by plastic. The server needs to see your I.D.
  They now know your name, Address and other info. The Banksters know what you purchased, where you where at what time, and they more than likely will get a percentage of the transactions.
  
  Cash. No one knows your Name, Address, Location, Finances, and other personal and private Matters, and the Banksters get a big poop sandwich. They get squat. No money and no info.
  
  WATCH THIS FILM !!!!
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWH5TlbloU
  
  Report this comment
- Jetstream001
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 4:09pm
  Michael – Cash is the only way to go. It is positively liberating in more ways than one.
  
  Report this comment
- ep8568
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 9:54pm
  …. which is why to go ahead and use your plastic “when you haven’t done anything wrong”. Just remember; that which provides direction can also provide misdirection !
  
  Report this comment
Maidoff101
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 7:22pm
The Authors of this Bill were for or against FISA?
which allowed Feds to wiretap Terrorists.
Now Their all for warrantless tapping of private E mails,
I guess in their world only Enimies are protected!

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media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 6:33pm
Oh please, all business people have to have a web site, and guess what they tell them? If competitor X has a social media site and you don’t, guess who the search engines are going to pick? If you buy into that bad advice, you now have to monitor third party web sites with expensive services, instead of simply adding search engine services and reviews of your own third party web web sites that you control the advertising for?

And to limit the expenses of businesses to participate in this needless expense, they apply peer pressure to get employees to participate in social media, creating the perfect storm of information that ensures you are the last one in control?

Where is the Napster version of Google under some nefarious code name? Who knows, but you can certainly start creating our own search engine directories, and we even have the xml schema to base them on?

Don’t worry the New York Times inspires us all on a daily basis?

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What the Heck
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 4:59pm
Bring it on commies.

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ObamaForward_OverTheCliff
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 4:36pm
“Here’s How Authorities Can Legally Spy on Your Digital Life (And Congress Could Make It Easier)”

“There are four boxes to be used in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury and ammo. Please use in that order.”
Well … Soap = Media. FAILED.
Next … Ballot = Stolen. FAILED.
Next … Jury = Nullified. FAILED.
Next …

In the meantime, to shore up your defenses, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has created this Surveillance Self-Defense site.
https://ssd.eff.org/
“Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD) exists to answer two main questions: What can the government legally do to spy on your computer data and communications? And what can you legally do to protect yourself against such spying?”
“The SSD Project — Risk Management — Data Stored on Your Computer — Data on the Wire — Information Stored By Third Parties — Foreign Intelligence and Terrorism Investigations — Defensive Technology”

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- ICSPADES
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 4:40pm
  After reading “Agenda 21″, everything has a different look and meaning.
  
  Report this comment
Larry E
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:39pm
The right to privacy only applies to abortions or politicians having illicit relationships with interns, aids, or minors. I mean really!

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drphil69
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:38pm
“WE’RE NOT DOING ANYTHING BAD… SO WE DON’T CARE…”

Yes I understand only the “bad” are punished… its been that way throughout history, right? Stalin and 40+ million dead… they were all “bad,” Mao and 80+ million dead.. all “bad,” and all those “bad” Jews and blacks in Hitler’s Germany…

The environ-social justice wackos have a different idea – if you leave your lights on, you are bad, if you use too much water, you are bad, if you drive anything but a volt or leaf, you are bad.

If you happen to be in their way, YOU ARE BAD.

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- Wolfgang the Gray
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 8:44pm
  That is the road the Useful Idiot Majority have put us on by giving Obama 4-more years. I hear people already talking about 2016. I don’t even know if we will have a country in 4-years. Remember that William Ayers (Weather Underground member & close buddy of BHO) casually discussed with other members of the WU in the 1970s that they estimated 25 Million Americans would have to be killed because they would refuse to be “re-educated” to accept the socialist nation. This is the “Fundamental Transformation” that the left wanted. They are now marching towards that goal & if they reach the finish line, everything that was America will be dead.
  
  May God have mercy upon us all if we allow this to happen.
  
  Report this comment
DadRocked
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:38pm
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. — Thomas Jefferson

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blaaaaackwoman
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:04pm
I don’t care. If the head of the CIA and an FBI agent can be monitored and brought down by personal data at least the ax swings both ways.

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- GB__The Holy Warmonger
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 11:08pm
  Is it comfortable being part of the problem?
  
  Report this comment
dy2000
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:43pm
“The sentiment is… they don’t care, because they are not doing anything bad.”
Define “not doing anything bad”.

I think progressives would love to consider TheBlaze as “doing something bad”

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- jungle J
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:01pm
  they know what they are doing…don’t kid yourself…it is part of their brave new world.
  
  Report this comment
Firefight
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:41pm
Since we’re on the subject of internet privacy… It’s worth mentioning that at there at least 15 trackers on this site. They are Auditude, CartBeat, DoubleClick, Facebook Connect, Google +1, Google Analytics, Lotame, Mixpanel, Omniture, RadiumOne, Full Circle Studies (Scorecard Research Beacon), Taboola, Twitter Button, and Visual Revenue.
Way to go Glenn! Thanks for looking out for our privacy. Well unless you can make a quick buck right? You give people just enough truth so that they trust you and then betray that trust for profit. Capitalism without moral direction is a very dangerous thing, perhaps as dangerous as communism. What happened to standing on your principles?

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- drphil69
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:52pm
  uhh.. the list you have is for anonymous trackers… what websites “you” visit.
  
  Reading your email is a little different, don’t you think? Or tracking your cell phone LOCATION IN REAL TIME…
  
  Next you will be equating calling obama a marxist with racism…
  
  Report this comment
- Firefight
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 6:10pm
  No some are anonymous some collect more than simple information. take the Google+1 for instance from their own privacy policy
  “Anonymous (Analytics, Browser Information, Cookie Data , Date/Time, Demographic Data, Hardware/Software Type, Interaction Data , Page Views , Serving Domains)
  Pseudonymous (IP Address (EU PII), Search History, Device ID (EU PII))
  PII (Phone Number)”
  Collecting your pseudonyms, IP, search history, device ID and phone number are far from anonymous data. Get your facts straight Doc.
  
  BTW I believe he is a Marxist. I hate to shatter any preconceived notion you may have about me but I actually believe principles are important and to me theft is theft. It doesn’t matter if it’s personal “anonymous” online information or theft my earnings as a tax, It is still theft. So in that regards, yes it is the same.
  
  Report this comment
- Anonymous T. Irrelevant
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 8:17pm
  I use “Do Not Track Plus” on my windows pc’s and Ghostery on my iPad. I refuse to get a smartphone. If they want to track me, I will make them work for it.
  
  Report this comment
Pantloadian
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:41pm
SOY . . . You got it right. Finally the conservatives get religion on civil liberties. Only the liberals and hardcore libertarians opposed this crap when it started with the Patriot Act. Now the Tea party wants to change it’s name to The Johnny Come Lately Liberty Party. Thanks, folks, but we got it covered.

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Cavallo
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:35pm
Tell me again how our armed forces are defending our freedom. What freedom? Make sure you define that term before you roll around in it.

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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:42pm
  The original intent for the creation of our armed forces was to protect the constitution and by extension us. Today they’re used to protect the ruling class from us serfs,it’s just that most people think they still operate under the original intent to protect the constitution.
  
  Report this comment
- Ragnars Repos
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:04pm
  “Tell me again how our armed forces are defending our freedom. What freedom?”
  
  Exactly.
  
  What are your young men and women dying for now, Americans? Ron Paul tried to point this out to you, but you were too busy drinking the GOProgressive, anti-Paul Kool-Aid.
  
  Just wait until your new masters turn the most powerful military on the planet against you. And they will. They always do. It’s only a matter of time and rot.
  
  Report this comment
progressiveslayer
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:26pm
With the current makeup of the SCOTUS and their allowing the government to tax you for not using a product I think it’s safe to say they’ll allow any violation of the constitution. How much of the handwriting on the wall do you need to see? It’s plain as day,the feds have been stripping us of our civil liberties for years and what’s been done to reverse that trend? Nothing,and I’m afraid to say it’s only going to get worse,much worse. Look at the ‘civilian army’ answerable only to the POTUS created in a so called health care law. Hitler had a civilian army as well it was called the SA and we all know how well that turned out.

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- Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:34pm
  Step by step Communism and a dictatorial system for Obama are being established.
  
  Report this comment
- DadRocked
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:37pm
  Wait until two on the SCOTUS retire and you see who they are replaced with.
  
  Report this comment
- progressiveslayer
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:56pm
  DADROCKED I know,they’ll be card carrying communists you can bet on it,I’m hoping they’ll be able to hold out and stay on the court until if and when Barry steps down.
  
  Report this comment
neverending
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:24pm
Just leave it to congress – I am sure they will be on the peoples side – NOT!

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- RamonPreston
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 4:36pm
  that’s right
  
  Report this comment
Ragnars Repos
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:21pm
See, there’s this coin. On one side you have what conservatives call the “social safety net”. On the other side you have totalitarians slowly increasing their power over you.

How’s that Medicare, SS, Food Stamp, Unemployment Benefits, etc. thing working out for ya, ‘compassionate conservatives’?

Sure, I’d give you some of someone else’s money if you let me have more control over your life. I mean, who wouldn’t?

Fat, dumb, and happy pol property: Americans, 2012.

Collectivism costs much more than money.

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progressiveslayer
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:20pm
You could write a thousand articles like this and the drones wouldn’t take notice,mostly because well they’re drones and can’t think past today.This site will be useful to this and future regimes in preparing their enemy of the state list,a convenient way to locate and deal with political enemies.

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resme
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:14pm
What? I thought the GOP loved liberty and privacy. Damn, I need to rethink my “love” for the government.

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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:31pm
  “liberty and privacy” only when it comes to money….If we are talking about anything else, GOP wants the feds involved
  
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DarthMims
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:14pm
This is the kind of story that should make people worry enough to call for action. The idea of “Big Brother” watching us is based on this kind of policy. The problem is that there are too many lawmakers, Republican and Democrat alike, that have the same apathetic viewpoint that if you aren’t doing something wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Why don’t people rally around these kind of stories like they do 9/11 conspiracy theories and the Buildeburger stuff. This is something that is actually happening and something we can correct if enough people know what freedoms they are giving up by sacrificing their privacy.

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grayling646
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:13pm
Step by step by step we’re inching closer to Amerika.

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sillyfreshness
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:08pm
1984 welcome to 2012

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banjarmon
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:07pm
Gregg also advocated for more sites using cookies to enable a “do not track” opt-out feature. Most sites with an “opt out” feature though require the user to manually choose to do so and won’t automatically enable it.
HOW ABOUT A OPT-IN FEATURE for Those that want to be TRACKED!!!!!

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moreteaplease
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:06pm
This will only get worse as time goes on because our government is way out of control with power that we allowed them to take over the years.

The people have very little say anymore about how the government is run and operated. And, what the people say gets ignored. The people are no longer being represented but rather dictated to by the government.

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justangry
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:03pm
Don’t worry the GOP will stand up for our rights….

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- Al J Zira
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:09pm
  Your sarcasm is noted and I agree. No one is standing up for our rights anymore.
  
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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:15pm
  “only people who are doing something wrong should be worried about spying”
  
  What, now theblaze is going to stand up against unconstitutional spying???
  
  Report this comment
- taxpro4u03
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:55pm
  Due diligence is non-delegable — so are one’s ‘RIGHTS.’ See Hale v Henkel 201 U.S. 43 @ 89 (1906) — One only ‘fears’ what one doesn’t understand. Most anyone can ‘learn.’ Knowledge isn’t ‘learning.’ UNDERSTANDING is learning. How does it or does it NOT ‘apply?’ What’s it ‘for?’ — A society of easily manipulated emotionally driven robots isn’t conducive to the pursuit of happiness, me don’t think. Do it any way you want, so long as ya don’t trespass on the ‘rights’ of others…. and hold others to account the same way — Natural law doesn’t change despite the best efforts of politicians, bureaucrats, crony capitalists, etc… It’s a constant. If 2+2 is now 5, and a lamb’s tail is now a leg …. ‘ok.’ — in THAT alternate reality. They co-exist. :-) Depends on where you ‘agree’ to stand.
  
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