Home > Articles > Security > Network Security

Technology: Privacy's Best Friend and Worst Enemy

📄 Contents

  1. How Technology Can Substitute for Police Investigation
  2. People Who Live in Glass Houses...
In this commentary, Bob Grogan discusses recently proposed anti-terrorism legislation and the threat that Americans feel at home - not at our borders, and not by foreign powers, but by our own legal authorities and their technologies of intrusion.
Like this article? We recommend

Recently an incredibly important case before the Supreme Court passed, as they often do, with little acknowledgement or fanfare. The case of Kyllo v. United States was probably one of the most significant cases relating to the struggle between technology and the preservation of privacy in this century.

The beauty of the Supreme Court, as I have always seen it, is its unending need to take seemingly banal, ordinary matters of jurisprudence and recognize the underlying Constitutional importance. Quite frankly, it's the only institution left relatively untarnished by greed, lobbyists, and cynicism. Other kids wanted to be astronauts—I still want to be a Supreme Court justice, or even just an intern.

Before getting into the facts of the case, I would like to dispense with the election folly that transpired last year by saying that the court has been in far greater disfavor in the past—namely, the Warren court's attempts at establishing equality and civil rights. Sometimes what is correct is far from politic.

Enough of that.

How Technology Can Substitute for Police Investigation

The facts in the case of Kyllo were this: A suspected grower of marijuana in the state of Oregon was under investigation. The suspect's daughter lived with the estranged wife of Danny Kyllo. Kyllo's wife had previously been involved in criminal drug possession. In spite of their estrangement, the police used this flimsy pretext as cause to expand the investigation to include Kyllo.

The first stop was Portland Gas and Electric. In court documents, it was determined that not only did the police obtain graphs of Kyllo's energy consumption relative to surrounding units, but they actually manipulated those graphs to make a minor variation into a major one. Lies, damned lies, statistics.

Still not to the crux of the matter. Having only the two-year-old drug conviction of his estranged wife, a slightly higher electricity bill, and triple—yes, triple—hearsay evidence was not sufficient grounds for a judge to issue a warrant against this suspect—even though the police failed to mention the estrangement.

Enter thermal imaging. The ability to scan objects outside the visible spectrum has proven useful for a great many things. In the military, it allows for nighttime engagement through the use of night-vision goggles. In police helicopters, Forward-Looking InfraRed (FLIR) has allowed for improved air support in tracking suspects and maintaining police safety. In many systems, a pilot can tell if a suspect has a gun by the temperature variation of the metal from body heat. Therein lies the problem.

A national guardsman aimed his thermal gear at the outside of the home of Danny Kyllo. The garage wall and roof were a splotchy white color, indicating the presence of a heat source within, consistent with growing lamps used in the cultivation of marijuana—or perhaps a combination washer and dryer.

Trust me, I'm the last person you'll see wearing a hemp shirt at the latest FreeFest in Chicago, but it seems like some law-enforcement priorities were a little askew.

Continuing with unbiased facts of the case: Based on this thermal scan and the aforementioned (proven) misstatements of fact, officers arrived 11 days later to seize all plants, equipment, and Kyllos at the residence.

After losing in initial hearings to suppress both the imaging evidence and the misleading testimony of officers used to secure the warrant, Kyllo entered a conditional plea of guilty, reserving the right of appeal. Further hoops—including the untimely retirement of an ailing judge on the appeals panel—found the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Despite the easy interpretation of this case as just another victory in the "War on Drugs," the highest court in the land saw an inherent Fourth Amendment issue relating to the use of technology to circumvent protections against unlawful search and seizure. A number of important and relevant precedents were available for both sides. Issues in play in this case related to the enhancement of human senses, privacy expectations when your window is open, and even the comparison of heat escaping past your insulation to garbage that you discard by the side of the road.

The arguments for the plaintiff boiled down to the assertion that simply monitoring the outside walls didn't constitute a search of the private residence. Further, they claimed, because Kyllo took no special effort to conceal the heat escaping, he had no expectation that the fact would remain private. Finally, they claimed that the technology was crude enough that no specific personal information about the home or its occupants was revealed—only a gross representation of its hot zones.

An unusual coalition of justices found these arguments compelling. Stephens, O'Conner, Kennedy, and Rehnquist found "a distinction of constitutional magnitude between 'through-the-wall' surveillance that gives the observer or listener direct access to information in a private area, on the one hand, and the thought processes used to draw inferences from information in the public domain, on the other hand." In other words, a microphone that allowed someone outside the residence to hear the conversation would be invasive, whereas one that only allowed detection of a conversation was the difference between a search and an observation.

In the majority opinion, Justices Scalia, Thomas, Ginsburg, Souter, and Breyer outlined a similar, but more useful standard of general public use. In other words, they contended, binoculars capable of peering through an open window are widely available, and thus acceptable, but thermal imagers are not widely used and therefore constitute an unacceptable enhancement to human senses.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020