Blogging for the 5th of July Foundation on Security, Privacy and Liberty
Ars spoke with several legal experts, and contacted CBP itself (which did not provide anything beyond previously-published policies). The short answer is: your device probably will be seized (or “detained” in CBP parlance), and you might be kept in physical detention—although no one seems to be sure exactly for how long.
Ars Technica: What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border? »
Francis Rawls, a former Philadelphia police sergeant, has been in the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center for more than 16 months. His crime: the fired police officer has been found in contempt of court for refusing a judge’s order to unlock two hard drives the authorities believe contain child pornography. Theoretically, Rawls can remain jailed indefinitely until he complies. (…)
He’s not charged with a crime. Judge demands he help prosecutors build their case.
Ars Technica: Man jailed 16 months, and counting, for refusing to decrypt hard drives »
A Hamburg court Friday barred a TV comedian from reciting in full his so-called “defamatory poem” against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan which sparked a diplomatic row last year. (…)
The Hamburg civil court, upholding a ruling from last May, barred Böhmermann from repeating lengthy passages of the poem, objecting to 18 of its 24 lines.
The Local.de: Hamburg court bans large parts of poem insulting Erdogan »
EU Observer:
It is too early to regulate the so-called block chain technology that underpins virtual currency Bitcoin, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said on Tuesday. “At this stage, it is premature to fully assess the changes that the technology could bring and the regulatory response that may be needed,” ESMA said. It added that the new technology may benefit the financial sector by reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
Spies and civil servants who leak national security secrets face up to 14 years in jail, in a major overhaul of the Official Secrets Act in the face of the growing threat from Russia, the Daily Telegraph has learnt.
Belgium has sealed an agreement with France and the Netherlands to draw up passenger lists and introduce passport checks on Thalys and Eurostar international rail services.
AP: Belgium, France, Netherlands to introduce rail ID checks »
There are at least four levels of hardfork that can take place, and the most likely is that enough miners just switch to a non-Core bitcoin distribution with a higher or dynamic blocksize limit – the second easiest level of hardfork.
Rick Falkvinge: My impressions of Satoshi Roundtable »
How will EU data protection be noticed for ordinary people? Euronews puts the question to Jan Philipp Albrecht, Green member of the European Parliament from Germany.
The improvement in substance is that there’s far more transparency under the new rules, which means that you will have more detailed information policies about what your data are processed for, which purposes if they are given to others, and there will be also in general more possibilities to get a view of which data are there about you. And you have new rights like data portability and the right to be forgotten. So it will be far easier for consumers to control their personal data.
In every moment, look around and ask yourself: “Is this right?” There are no heroes, only heroic choices. Act accordingly.
– Edward Snowden
An evenly split federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that it won’t revisit its July decision that allowed Microsoft to squash a US court warrant for e-mail stored on its servers in Dublin, Ireland. The 4-4 vote by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals sets the stage for a potential Supreme Court showdown over the US government’s demands that it be able to reach into the world’s servers with the assistance of the tech sector. (…)
In its petition for a rehearing, the government said Microsoft didn’t have the legal right to defend the privacy of its e-mail customers, and that the July ruling isn’t good for national security.
Ars Technica: US has no right to seize data from world’s servers—court ruling stands »