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Washington State May Soon Regulate Personal Information Collection by Drones

Here is the second post I wrote this week for The Secure Times, the blog of the Privacy and Information Security Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law.

Two Washington State bills are addressing the issue of government surveillance using drones, and the potential negative impact this could have on privacy.

The first bill, HB 1771, is a bi-partisan bill sponsored by Rep. David Taylor, R-Moxee, which was introduced last year. It calls drones a “public unmanned aircraft system.”

HB 2789, is also sponsored by Rep. David Taylor. It calls drones “extraordinary sensing devices” and its Section 3(1) would have government use of drones “conducted in a transparent manner that is open to public scrutiny.”

Calling drones “devices” instead of “aircraft” has significance for a State famous for its aeronautic industry. Indeed, while HB 1771 passed the House last week, HB 2789 stills lingers in Committee.

A Very Broad Definition of Personal Information

HB 2789 and HB 1771 both define what is “personal information” quite broadly, as it would not only encompass a social security or an I.D. number, but also “medical history, ancestry, religion, political ideology, or criminal or employment record.”

Interestingly, it would also encompass information that can be “a basis for inferring personal characteristics” such as “the record of the person’s presence, registration, or membership in an organization or activity, or admission to an institution” or even, “things done by or to such person,” a definition that is so broad that it may encompass just about anything that ever happens to an individual. This definition recognizes that drone surveillance allows for a 24/7 surveillance society.

Personal information also means IP and trade secret information.

Illegal Collection of Data by Drones Must be “Minimized”

Under section 4 of HB 2789, disclosure of personal information acquired by a drone must be conducted in a way that minimizes unauthorized collection and disclosure of personal information. It reprises the words of Section 5 of HB 1771, only replacing ‘public unmanned aircraft by ‘extraordinary sensing device.’

I am not sure that I interpreted section 4 correctly, so here is the full text:

All operations of an extraordinary sensing device or disclosure of personal information about any person acquired through the operation of an extraordinary sensing device must be conducted in such a way as to minimize the collection and disclosure of personal information not authorized under this chapter.

So the standard it not complete avoidance of unauthorized collection of personal information, but instead minimization of illegal collection. The wording may reflect the understanding of the legislature that, because of the amazing volume of data that may potentially be collected by drones, including “things done by or to such person,” it would be unrealistic to set a standard of complete avoidance of data collection.

Maybe this ”minimizing” standard set by HB 1771 and HB 2789 is a glimpse of the standards for future data protection law…

Warrant Needed to Collect Personal Information by Drones

Under Section 5 of HB 2789, a drone could to collect personal information pursuant to a search warrant, which could not exceed a period of ten days.

The standard to obtain a warrant under Section5 (3)(c) of HB 2789 and Section 6 (2) (c ) of HB 1771would be “specific and articulable facts demonstrating probable cause to believe that there has been, is, or will be criminal activity”

Under Section 5 (3)(d) of HB 2789, a petition for a search warrant would also have to include a statement that “other methods of data collection have been investigated and found to be either cost prohibitive or pose an unacceptable safety risk to a law enforcement officer or to the public. ”

So drones should be, at least for now, still considered an extraordinary method to be used in criminal investigations. Such statement would not be necessary though under HB 1771.

Warrant could not exceed ten days under Section 5(5) of HB 2789, but could not exceed 48 hours under section 6(4)HB 1771, and thus HB 1771 would be much more protective for civil liberties. However, as we saw, it is unlikely that HB 1771 will ever be enacted into law.

Warrant Not Needed in Case of an Emergency

Both bills would authorize some warrantless use of drones.

However, under Section 7 of HB 2789 a warrant would not be needed if a law enforcement officer “reasonably determines that an emergency situation exists [involving] criminal activity and presents immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person,” and that the use of a drone is thus necessary.

Under Section 8 of HB 1771, it would only be necessary for the law enforcement officer to “reasonably determine that an emergency situation exists that involves immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person” which would require the use of drone, without requiring a pre-determination of criminal activity.

But even if an emergency situation does not involve criminal activity, section 8 of HB 2789 allows for the use of drones without a warrant if there is “immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person,” which would require the use of drones in order “to reduce the danger of death or serious physical injury.”

However, such use would only be authorized if it could be reasonably determined that such use of drones “does not intend to collect personal information and is unlikely to accidentally collect personal information,” and also that such use is not done “for purposes of regulatory enforcement.“

Both bills require that an application for a warrant be made within 48 hours after the warrantless use of a drone.

Fruits of the Poisonous Drone

Under section 10 of HB 2789 and section 10 of HB 1771, no personal information acquired illegally by a drone nor any evidence derived from it could be used as evidence in a court of law or by state authorities.

Handling Personal Information Lawfully Collected

Even if personal information has been lawfully collected by drones, such information may not be copied or disclosed for any other purpose than the one for which it has been collected, “unless there is probable cause that the personal information is evidence of criminal activity.”

If there is no such evidence, the information must be deleted within 30 days if the information was collected pursuant to a warrant and 10 days if was incidentally collected under section 11 of HB 2789, but would have to be deleted within 24 hours under section 11 of HB 1771.

Drone regulation is a new legal issue, but Washington would not be the first State to regulate it. Many other States have introduced similar proposals, often not successfully however. But Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia have all enacted laws regulating the use of drones for surveillance purposes and North Carolina has enacted a two-year moratorium. It remains to be seen if and when federal legislation will be enacted.

Source: The Secure Times

Image is l ast drones courtesy of Flickr user farnea pursuant to a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

Warrant Needed In Massachusetts to Obtain Cell Phone Records

I am blogging this week for The Secure Times, the blog of the Privacy and Information Security Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law. Here is the first of this week’s posts.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 5-2 on February 18 in Commonwealth v. Augustine that the government must first obtain a warrant supported by probable cause before obtaining two weeks worth of historical cell site location information (CSLI).

Defendant had been indicted for the 2004 murder of his former girlfriend. During the investigation, the prosecution filed for an order to obtain CSLI from the suspect’s cellular service provider, but the order was filed under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) of the Stored Communications Act (SCA). Under that law, the government does not need to show probable cause, but only needs to show specific and articulable facts showing “that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the contents of a wire or electronic communication, or the records or other information sought, are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.”

The order was granted by the Superior Court in September 2004. Defendant was indicted by a grand jury in 2011, and filed a motion to suppress evidence associated with his cell phone in November 2012.

A judge from the Superior Court granted his motion to suppress, reasoning that this was a search under article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights – which is similar to the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – and thus a search warrant was required.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts appealed, arguing that the CSLI was a business record, held by a third party, and that the defendant had no expectation of privacy in this information as he had voluntarily revealed it to a third party.

This argument did not convince the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, ruling instead that defendant had an expectation of privacy in the CSLI and that the prosecution therefore needed to obtain a warrant based on probable cause to obtain this information.

The Third Party Doctrine

Why did the court find that the defendant had an expectation of privacy in his CSLI, even though this information was known by a third party, his cell phone service provider?

Under the U.S. Supreme Court third party doctrine, as stated in the U.S. v. Miller 1976 case and in the 1979 Smith v.Maryland case, a defendant has no reasonable expectation of privacy in information revealed to third parties.

In Miller, the Supreme Court found that defendant has no expectation of privacy in his bank records, as they were “business records of the banks.” Similarly, in Smith v. Maryland, the Supreme Court held that installing and using a telephone pen register was not a “search” under the Fourth Amendment, and thus no warrant was required, because the defendant had no expectation of privacy in the phone numbers he had dialed.

First, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recognized article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights affords more protection than the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Then, the Supreme Judicial Court distinguished Miller and Smith from the case, finding “significant difference” between these two cases and the case at stake. The Court noted that “the digital age has altered dramatically the societal landscape from the 1970’s.”

In Smith, the defendant had taken an affirmative step when dialing the numbers which had been communicated to the prosecution by the telephone company. He had to do it in order to be able to use his telephone service. As such, Smith had “identified] a discrete item of information…like a telephone number (or a check or deposit slip as in Miller) and then transmit it to the provider.”

But cell phone users do not transmit their data to their cell phone company in order to use the service. Instead, “CSLI is purely a function and product of cellular telephone technology, created by the provider’s system network.”

The court also noted that, while using a landline may only indicate that a particular party is at home, CSLI provides a detailed report of an individual’s whereabouts. The Massachusetts court quoted the State v. Earls case from the New Jersey Supreme Court, which stated that using a cell phone to determine the location of its owner “is akin to using a tracking device and can function as a substitute for 24/7 surveillance.”

As CSLI is business information “substantively different from the types of information and records contemplated by Smith and Miller,” the court concluded that it “would be inappropriate to apply the third-party doctrine to CSLI.” However, the court added that they saw “no reason to change [their] view thatthe third-party doctrine applies to traditional telephone records.”

Obtaining CSLI from a Cell Phone Provider is a Search and Thus Requires a Warrant

The court then proceeded to answer the question of whether the government needed a warrant to access the CSLI.

As CSLI informs law enforcement about the whereabouts of an individual, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court compared it to electronic monitoring devices such as a GPS. It noted that “it is only when such tracking takes place over extended periods of time that the cumulative nature of the information collected implicates a privacy interest on the part of the individual who is the target of the tracking,” quoting the Supreme Court U.S. v. Jones case, where Justice Sotomayor and Justice Alito both noted in their concurring opinions that the length of a GPS surveillance is relevant to determine whether or not the individual monitored has or does not have an expectation of privacy.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found relevant the duration of the period of time for which historical CSLI was sought by the government. The government may only obtain historical CSLI, meeting the SCA standard of specific and articulable facts, if the time period is “too brief to implicate the person’s reasonable privacy interest,” but the two-week period covered in this case exceeds it.

The court’s ruling was about article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. The Supreme Court has not yet considered the issue of whether obtaining CSLI is a search under the Fourth Amendment. Since courts are split on this issue, it is likely that the Supreme Court will answer the question of whether a warrant is required to obtain cell phone location records quite soon.

Source: The Secure Times

Image is Cell Phone Life Vest courtesy of Flickr user Counselman Collection pursuant to a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

Washington State May Soon Regulate Personal Information Collection by Drones

Warrant Needed In Massachusetts to Obtain Cell Phone Records

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