1. Identify and describe four ways in which the privacy threats posed by cyberte
ID: 2247177 • Letter: 1
Question
1. Identify and describe four ways in which the privacy threats posed by cybertechnology differ from those posed by earlier technologies?
2. Can a person claim privacy rights when they use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter? Why is this difficult to define? Can there be such a thing a privacy on the Internet?
2. When investigating a computer crime why is it necessary to have a warrant? What can potentially happen if a warrant is not issued? Research a recent case in reference to search and seizure of computer evidence. Please describe the case in detail. Do you agree with the ruling?
3. How is the Fourth Amendment applied to computer investigations? What problems might arise because of this Amendment?
Explanation / Answer
1.
Privacy concerns have been exacerbated by cybertechnology in at least four ways, i.e., by the:
2.
There’s no such thing as privacy on the Internet anymore.
Technical mechanisms for uniquely identifying Web users date back to the introduction of the cookie in the Netscape browser in 1994.
When the user loads a web page they get all the information necessary to display the page, such as the text, layout and images. But they also a small amount of “cookie” data sent along too, which is stored by the browser on the user’s computer.
When the user requests another page from the same Web site, the browser appends the cookie to the request to the server. In this way, the server hosting the Web site knows that the request came from the same computer.
Cookies are extremely useful and without them there would be no support for Web site logins.
But they can also be used to provide a complete record of a user’s use of a Web site. The use of “tracking cookies” allows this recording to extend across many, manyWeb sites, providing a comprehensive picture of a user’s browsing history to whoever controls the tracking cookie.
This becomes particularly intrusive if this browsing history can then be tied to any identifying data.
Privacy management
Understandably, many Internet users aren’t terribly enthusiastic about their browsing history being so readily available to third parties. Tools to manage cookies have been incorporated into Internet browsers and third-party privacy tools.
Deleting cookies, or controlling whether particular cookies are sent back to particularWeb sites, gives the user more control over the extent of monitoring.
3.
The Fourth Amendment provides as follows:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The amendment prohibits the government from conducting unreasonable “searches” and “seizures.” The exclusionary rule enforces the amendment by prohibiting federal, state, or local judges from admitting in the government’s case-in-chief evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Parties injured by an unlawful search or seizure can also bring a damages action against the officers involved, but the exclusionary rule has made criminal trials the most likely forum for a public airing of competing versions of what the Fourth Amendment should protect.
The constitutional protections afforded by the Fourth Amendment related to cybercrimes are no different than a Fourth Amendment action on a car, a house or any other private possession, but the application of these protections is evolving because of the nature of digital storage devices. Computers, cloud servers, tablets, watches, phones, and the like run everyday activities. Dependency on the gadget world has become the norm, and each cyber access object used to preserve private and personal information once kept in phone books, on paper, in drawers at home, or file cabinets at the office is now an item protected by the Fourth Amendment. Generally, the content of digitally preserved information is not easy to access by law enforcement because most people protect their information with passwords. Just as with locked compartments, such actions present a unique layer of privacy that enhances the protection of the Fourth Amendment to those devices.
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