iPhones, Crime, and the Tension Between Privacy and Security: Should the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act Be Amended?

Despite law enforcement’s best efforts to use social media as a means of community policing, some engagement tactics may lead citizens to disclose personally identifiable information (PII). We coded 200 tweets with the popular #9PMRoutine that tagged @PascoSheriff (Florida) for participant PII. We found numerous postings of adults’ and children’s PII that are problematic including pictures, health information and security-related comments about their routines or vacations. Implications for law enforcement to protect their communities are discussed as well as opportunities to continue to cultivate their online relationships in a more secure forum. We also provide future research directions.

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Affordance is Power: Contradictions Between Communicational and Technical Dimensions of WhatsApp’s End-to-End Encryption

Social Media + Society ◽

10.1177/2056305118795876 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 205630511879587 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marcelo Santos ◽

Antoine Faure

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

Public Relations ◽

Digital Media ◽

Historical Perspective ◽

Political Conflict ◽

User Privacy ◽

Privacy And Security ◽

End To End ◽

Oriented Approach ◽

Roll Out

WhatsApp’s implementation of end-to-end encryption has been celebrated by many. Intriguingly, though, the invisible affordance was made visible with an individual message to each conversation. In this research, we “properly scrutinize” the roll-out of the affordance in historical perspective inspired by the “platform biography” approach, critically comparing corporate and media documentation with an analysis of the attributes and affordances that refer to the realm of privacy and security with focus on the end-to-end encryption. After pointing the contradictions with evidences found, we conclude that the implementation should be interpreted neither as a plain idealistic saga for user privacy and security by the App’s founders nor as simply a market-oriented approach—though both are clearly components of the company’s motives—but as a strategic move inserted in a: (1) Public Relations guerrilla strategy from WhatsApp Inc. facing national States and respective intelligence agencies or law enforcement institutions, in which context the development and implementation of affordances reveals a (2) power move by corporate digital media to avoid political conflict against vigilante state power and therefore the App’s subsistent vulnerabilities in terms of privacy and security should be read as (3) a tradeoff between commercial massiveness at the expense of technological utopia.

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Obtaining electronic information on criminal cases within the framework of international cooperation

Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University Law ◽

10.21638/spbu14.2021.103 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 36-51

Author(s):

Kirill K. Klevtsov ◽

◽

Vitaliy F. Vasyukov ◽

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

International Cooperation ◽

Information And Communication Technologies ◽

Significant Risk ◽

Practical Implementation ◽

Criminal Cases ◽

Electronic Information ◽

Law Enforcement Agencies ◽

Privacy And Security ◽

The World

The explosive growth of information and communication technologies, which has affected human social communication institutions, has become commensurate with the increase in potential risks to the security and rights of citizens. The authors of the article attempt to highlight the issues of international cooperation between law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation and other countries in the framework of obtaining electronic information that is important for proving criminal cases. Attention is paid to procedures for ensuring the collection and use of electronic data in the response to crime occurring in the current fine line of confidentiality of privacy and security. Despite the mutual agreements signed between many countries of the world, the practical implementation of regulations that ensure the provision of electronic information in the framework of international cooperation is currently fraught with certain problems. Meanwhile, in the context of countering such dangerous phenomena for the world community as terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking, weapons, and people, a single mechanism for exchanging information stored on a gigantic scale on the servers of Telecom operators and providers has not yet been developed. The actual search for data stored on mobile devices usually requires a warrant in common law countries. In situations where there is a significant risk of loss of evidence, such as when data detection and other computer forensics tools are actively used, some jurisdictions allow law enforcement agencies to perform limited searches of devices without a warrant due to alleged data vulnerability. Another problem is the retention of stored data, since different practices apply in different countries. In this regard, it is essential that investigators and prosecutors are well informed about geo-specific data mapping issues, including “embargoes” or bans on the exchange of computer information.

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Law Enforcement, Privacy, and Security in Dealing with Cybercrime

Cybercrime and Digital Forensics ◽

10.4324/9781315296975-2 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 39-66

Author(s):

Thomas J. Holt ◽

Adam M. Bossler ◽

Kathryn C. Seigfried-Spellar

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

Privacy And Security

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Pyrotechnic Residues in Gunshot Residue Analysis

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100117649 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 43 ◽

pp. 128-129

Author(s):

H. M. Sagara ◽

S. A. Schliebe ◽

M. C. Kong

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

Residue Analysis ◽

Gunshot Residue ◽

Particle Analysis ◽

Dry Skin ◽

X Ray ◽

Skin Cells ◽

Smokeless Powder ◽

Carbon Coated ◽

Detailed List

Particle analysis by scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive x- ray analysis is one of the current methods used in crime laboratories to aid law enforcement in identifying individuals who have recently fired or handled a firearm. During the discharge of a firearm, the high pressure caused by the detonation of the cartridge materials forces a portion of the generated gases through leaks in the firing mechanism of the weapon. These gases contain residues of smokeless powder, primer mixture, and contributions from the projectile itself. The condensation of these hot gases form discrete, micrometer-sized particles, which can be collected, along with dry skin cells, salts, and other hand debris, from the hands of a shooter by a simple adhesive lift technique. The examination of the carbon-coated adhesive lifts consist of time consuming systematic searches for high contrast particles of spherical morphology with the characteristic elemental composition of antimony, barium and lead. A detailed list of the elemental compositions which match the criteria for gunshot residue are discussed in the Aerospace report.

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