amendments

Video game aficionados might have to enter a credit card or find another way to verify their age before playing a networked game, thanks to a new push from advocacy groups who say they want to protect minors from in-game advertising messages.

In-game marketing has become so advanced that it "allows advertisers to track game users" and detect if people who are exposed to certain ads eventually use or buy the advertised product, a coalition including the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, the Center for Digital Democracy, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and U.S. PIRG told federal … Read more

A law requiring police to obtain a search warrant before tracking Americans' cell phones may imperil criminal investigations and endanger children's lives, a law enforcement representative told Congress this week.

Obtaining a search warrant when monitoring the whereabouts of someone "who may be attempting to victimize a child over the Internet will have a significant slowing effect on the processing of child exploitation leads," said Richard Littlehale of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. "If that is acceptable, so be it, but it is a downstream effect that must be considered."

Littlehale's remarks to a … Read more

To nab a pair of men accused of robbing banks in Connecticut, court documents show the FBI turned to a novel investigative technique last year: warrantless monitoring of the locations of about 180 different cell phones, court documents show.

The FBI obtained a secret order--it has not been made public--commanding nine different telephone companies to provide federal police "with all cell site tracking data and cell site locator information for all incoming and outgoing calls to and from the target numbers."

But because the U.S. Justice Department did not obtain a warrant by proving to a judge … Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday said a police department could legally review text messages on a department-issued pager that a SWAT team member used for personal conversations while on duty.

Jeff Quon, who worked as a sergeant in Ontario, Calif., did not have his privacy rights violated when a supervisor discovered that 90 percent of messages sent while on duty were personal, the justices unanimously ruled.

What makes this case unique is that the Supreme Court went out of its way to avoid setting a precedent for what kind of searches of government employees' electronic devices are reasonable … Read more

A judge in Silicon Valley will hear arguments later this week in a dispute over unsealing records about the criminal investigation into what may have been a prototype iPhone purchased by a gadget blog.

San Mateo County Judge Clifford Cretan has scheduled a hearing for 9 a.m. PDT Friday in his courtroom in Redwood City, Calif. Cretan previously approved a police request to search the home office of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen, a decision that unleashed a torrent of speculation about the legality of searching a journalist's workplace and whether Apple instigated the raid.

Media organizations including CNET, … Read more

An attorney for the 21-year-old Silicon Valley resident who found what appears to be Apple's prototype iPhone in a bar is expected to oppose a request by CNET and other media organizations to unseal court records relating to the investigation.

A coalition also including the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, the Los Angeles Times, and Wired.com has prepared a 7-page legal brief that will ask a court to unseal the detective's affidavit used to obtain a search warrant nearly two weeks ago. A hearing has been tentatively scheduled in the San Mateo County courthouse for 2 p.m. … Read more

The justifications police gave for searching the home of a Gizmodo editor in the criminal investigation of an iPhone prototype should be public, CNET is preparing to tell a judge this week.

A group that also includes the California-based First Amendment Coalition and prominent news organizations is drafting a legal brief that will ask a court to unseal the detective's affidavit used to obtain a search warrant nearly two weeks ago. San Mateo County prosecutors have persuaded a judge to seal all the records of the case.

Making those documents public could reveal whether prosecutors and Superior Court Judge … Read more

A lawyer for Gizmodo says the gadget blog could sue the sheriff's office in San Mateo County, Calif., for raiding an editor's home last Friday as part of a criminal probe into an errant iPhone prototype.

The option of a lawsuit "is available because search is not the appropriate method in this situation," Thomas R. Burke, a media lawyer and partner in the San Francisco offices of Davis Wright Tremaine, told CNET. He said the search warrant violated a California journalist shield law designed to limit searches of newsrooms.

Burke added, however, that he has been … Read more

San Mateo County prosecutors are defending the search of a Gizmodo editor's home and seizure of his computers that are part of a criminal investigation into an iPhone prototype lost by an Apple employee.

Stephen Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney, told CNET on Tuesday evening that prosecutors had considered whether reporter shield laws applied to the search and seizure aimed at the gadget blog--and decided to proceed after carefully reviewing the rules.

"My prosecutor who is handling it considered this issue right off the bat when it was being brought into him and had some good reasons why … Read more