Location Privacy

Here are two cases regarding location privacy, US vs. Maynard and US vs. Cuevas-Perez. Read these documents and write one posting each summarizing the case in your own words. In summary, you need to include arguments from both sides.

US vs Maynard

In the US vs Maynard case, Jones argued that the GPS evidence gathered 24 hours a day for four weeks violated the 4th amendment, which protects from unreasonable search and seizure. He alleges that the surveillance was a search as it had violated his privacy as surveillance over such a long time reveals details about his personal life and violates his reasonable expectation of privacy.

Therefore, in this case, the court ruled that the warrantless use of GPS tracking for a month was a search. In this case, I think that the courts made the right decision, as if they would've allowed this, then any citizen of the US could be legally tracked by the government 24 hours for an extended period of time without a warrant. That would be a violation of a persons privacy.

US vs Cuevas-Perez

In this case, Cuevas-Perez argued that, the GPS evidence gathered over a period of 60 hours for one trip was a search and violated his 4th amendment rights. The courts,referring to the Knotts case, GPS tracking was not a search and since the sruveillance was only over a period of 60 hours and a single trip, it was admitted.

This case was admitted as this case would allow police to legally track criminals but only over a shorter period of time.

IP address geolocation and Banning IPSec

1. Filtering system is difficult to implement. In the example of Yahoo vs. French Government, Yahoo argued that location-based filtering is limited in its effectiveness. The location-detection technology has greatly changed since. For example, now IP addresses are often tied to mobile devices with GPS coordinates. Search engines and location-based services try to determine your location based on your IP addresses. Read this article and write your opinion on whether IP address is individually-identifiable information or not. Support your argument with references.

I think that an IP address is still not an individually identifiable information. IP addresses identify a machine, not a person. Any person could be using that machine. And as we discussed in class there are ways to circumvent location-based filtering using IP addresses, such as proxy services and IP address spoofing.

Although devices may use IP addresses for locating you, it is still unreliable because of these ways that you can circumvent it. For example, google uses other ways to determine your location, such as wi-fi hotspots in conjunction with your IP address for a computer, and cell towers for mobile devices.

Sources: http://www.google.com/mobile/gmm/mylocation/index.html

http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=153807

2. IPSec is an Internet standard that can provide VPN (Virtual Private Network) between computers. If a user in more restricted country "A" wishes to communicate with a user in less restricted country "B", they could IPSec with encryption to avoid the monitoring by the "A" government. "A" government now wishes to ban IPSec in this country. Describe what steps "A" needs to take to ban IPSec in this country.

To attempt to ban IPSec, the government would need to collaborate with ISP's to refuse all connections made using gateway routers. By refusing all connections using gateway routers, this would specify that all the header files must contain the original IP address of the origin of the message, which would break IPSec

Also, they can refuse all encrypted header files, which IPSec does to protect privacy.

Progress Report and Discussion about patents

1. Write the progress report on your website project. If your website needs a new content developed, then include the outline of the new content, and the timeline of the development. If your website is a hub/portal of existing contents, then include the list of contents you will include and the selection criteria, i.e. how you chose these contents.

A General Introduction to Communicating over the Internet

Browser Setup

1) Main browsers in use today and their special features

- Chrome's in bar site search

- Opera's built in bittorent client

2) Addons within browsers which could be useful to users

Services that are useful for communicating and sharing

Applications

1) Skype, MSN Messenger, AOL Messenger etc...

2) Any others

Web services

1) Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc...

2) Meebo, Ebuddy etc...

3) Any others

2. Read sections 5-9 in About "trivial" software patents: the isnot case and Apple's Slide to Unlock Patent: Yes, the Patent System Needs Reform. Do you think this patent is trivial or not? Explain your reasoning.

I think this patent is trivial. The idea of a slide to unlock button is one that has existed before, as shown in the link included in the article. This shows that prior art has existed and so granting this pattern could be harmful for further development.

in our in class discussions, we discussed on whether software should be granted patents or copyright. We came to the conclusion that a complex and original idea, such as a new algorithm, or a new encoding method should be patented, while the implementation of such software be copyrighted.

In the Apple Slide to Unlock patent case, the idea of unlocking by sliding a bar or swiping something on the touchpad is not original and somewhat obvious. It is not a complex idea, and as such should not be granted a patent.