Expectations of privacy...

[Lamplighter]

I can see that I'm in the minority here, but that's OK.

On a somewhat different tack, here's a federal judicial decision about police seizure of electronic equipment.

It is a moderately long article detailing the events leading up to the arrest
and the police officer's viewing the video in a camera used to record the event.
Jury verdict: arrest without probable cause
Judge's ruling: search without a warrant

The Oregonian
Bryan Denson,
January 30, 2012

Eugene verdict clarifies legal protections for protesters who turn video cameras on police

[Oregon] State law permits protesters to record police in public places.
But courts have made few rulings on what officers can do with the
recording devices they seize from people during arrests.

The rules of engagement became clearer in Eugene's U.S. District Court last week,
when a civil jury determined that a city police sergeant violated an environmental activist's
constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure
during a 2009 leafletting campaign outside a bank.<snip>

U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin ruled in a pretrial hearing in the Eugene case
that [police officer] Solesbee violated [activist] Schlossberg's Fourth Amendment rights
by searching the contents of his camera without a warrant.
That ruling marked the first time that a federal court in Oregon
weighed in on warrantless seizures of digital devices.

"Across the country right now, legal scholars and lawyers are just eating it up,"
Regan said of the ruling, "because it's actually a solid statement
of the right to privacy in the age of technology."

[richlevy]

Just from a legal standpoint, if someone deliberately attaches a $300 device to my vehicle, does it become my property? Should I tape a nice 'thank you' note to wherever they attached it?

[SamIam]

Various agencies have already been tracking people by their cell phone use, so the GPS thing is just a refinement on what law enforcement has already been doing.

Now DHS wants to build a better mousetrap in the form of a "Federated Information Sharing System." That should be fun. What 4th Amendment?

In an effort to enhance DHS’ information sharing capabilities, the department is looking to construct an integrated database known as the “Federated Information Sharing System,” a move which has raised concerns from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Currently data is restricted to individual systems within various DHS components which were created to fulfill specific mission requirements.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

I can see that I'm in the minority here, but that's OK.

I'm with you. I have no cell phone, don't use electronic highway toll payment, and no social media sites.
Ain't nobody's business but my own.

[SamIam]

Wow! We must be the last two people on earth who don't have cell phones! I don't have to worry about highway toll payments out here, and I have an ancient GPS that comes along on camping trips only. Still, I bet they'd can track me, anyway.

[Griff]

Jimmy Fallon was doing a gag on Late Night where he needed people's cells. Everybody he asked had one. We don't need to be chipped, we do it voluntarily. <shrug>

I think my fazebook issue is just an extension of my default anti-crowd outlook. It is really had for me to be "on" and go out among the humans each day, so exposing myself on fb doesn't feel right either.