Bits and Bytes

A few items that caught my eye: FCC unveils new regulatory paradigm -- "In recent months, the Federal Communications Commission has quietly worked to expand its role among federal agencies charged with protecting the nation's networks from cyberattack. On Thursday, the agency sought to take the lead again, unveiling a new regulatory model aimed at helping phone companies and other telecommunications firms defend themselves from malicious hackers." Eleventh Circuit protects historical cell-site records.  "The Eleventh Circuit created a circuit split today on whether the Fourth Amendment protects historical cell-site information. Last year, the Fifth Circuit held that it doesn’t; today the Eleventh Circuit held that it does. The Eleventh Circuit’s opinion is premised on the idea that some facts are inherently private. If the government learns those facts, then a search occurs. Here, the court concludes that cell-site information reveals private facts about you such as whether you are “near the home of a lover, or a dispensary of medication, or a place of worship, or a house of ill repute.” Because those facts are by nature private, the court holds, the government violates a reasonable expectation of privacy when it learns those facts by collecting cell-site records from cellular phone providers. "  [I agree with Orin Kerr that the Fifth Circuit has the better of the argument under current Supreme Court doctrine.] The Internet: A Lawless Wild West?  "One year after the Snowden revelations of NSA spying, it is worth looking at what is really at stake. . . . Imagine that twenty years after Johannes Gutenberg invented mechanical movable type, the Pope and the petty princes of Europe—in fact, anyone who tried hard enough—had the ability to determine exactly what was being printed, exactly who was printing it and exactly to whom they were sending it. Worrying about intellectual-property theft, privacy or civil rights (had those concepts existed) would have been missing the bigger picture."  [Much as I admire Jason Healey, his vision of an Interent without conflict is hopelessly optimistic.]