Supreme Court says cops can’t search your phones without a warrant

The Supreme Court’s Aereo decision may not have it earned many techie fans, but its decision on two other cases — Riley v. California and U.S. v. Wurie — may change that. The highest court in the land has just unanimously ruled that the police “generally” cannot search your cellphones without a warrant. As always, there’s room left for extenuating circumstances, but you won’t have to worry about the police rifling through the contents of your mobile devices if you get pulled over for speeding.

These two cases were rooted on opposite sides of the country, but in both instances the police used information obtained from the plantiffs’ phones to tie them to acts of wrongdoing. In David Leon Riley’s case, a slew of curiously worded text messages prompted police to investigate a connection to a San Diego-based members of the Bloods, while an entry in Brima Wurie’s call log led police officers in Boston straight to his apartment (and his stash of drugs) after he was already arrested. We live in an age of instantaneous communication — good or bad — but the high court seems to have right idea when it comes to how the legal system should look at the gobs of photos, data and communiqués we carry around with us everywhere. Here’s what Chief Justice John Roberts had to say in his written opinion:

Modern cell phones are not just another technological convenience. With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans “the privacies of life,” Boyd, supra, at 630. The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought. Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple- get a warrant.

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Via: SCOTUSBlog

Source: Supreme Court

Sky goes it alone for its latest fibre broadband trial

Currently at the mercy of BT, Sky has indicated that it wants to build its own fibre-optic broadband network for some time. Having partnered with providers to deliver TV broadcasts over cables and teamed up with TalkTalk to supply gigabit (1000 Mbps) broadband to select customers in York, the company has decided to go it alone for its latest fibre trial. In Basingstoke, Sky’s building its own fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network that’s capable of delivering speeds of up to 950 Mbps over an ethernet connection (150 Mbps over WiFi), far outstripping those offered by rivals BT and Virgin Media (which currently top out at 300 Mbps).

To do so, it’s using overhead poles to bring fibre optic cables directly to subscribers’ homes instead of relying on a local (often BT-operated) exchange, bypassing the limitations of traditional copper wires that feed the majority of Britain’s homes. In return for testing the new fibre network (under Sky’s Love Digital brand), lucky residents enjoy Sky’s superfast broadband free-of-charge for one year, as well as a £10.75 monthly saving on their TV bill. While Sky is still conducting early tests, it suggests the company may soon be ready to invest in its own fibre network and go direct to customers. That’ll intensify competition, giving consumers more choice and likely incentivise lower prices in the process.

Filed under: Household, Internet

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Via: TechWeekEurope

Source: Love Digital

Europe gives Dixons Carphone the green light

The £3.8 billion merger of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse has cleared a big hurdle today. After announcing their intention to join forces as Dixons Carphone in May, the European Commission has seen fit to clear the deal, allowing the two parties to begin working out what to do with their combined 3,000 stores and 35,000 employees.

Filed under: Wireless, Mobile

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Source: Carphone Warehouse

Libraries will lend out WiFi hotspots to foster online learning

For the less fortunate, a library may be the only reliable way to get online. But what do they do after hours, or when they can’t make the trek? That’s where a pair of Knight Foundation grants may prove vital. Both the Chicago Public Library and New York Public Library are starting up large-scale projects that lend WiFi hotspots to households with little to no internet access, giving them a chance to pursue internet education programs that would otherwise be off-limits. Chicago’s approach will let those in six broadband-deprived neighborhoods borrow a hotspot for up to three weeks; in New York, the library will offer mobile routers for up to a year as part of existing learning initiatives.

New York has already conducted a small-scale test, but it could be a while before there’s a broader rollout in either city. The two don’t get their grants until the summer, and it’s going to take some time after that before the portable access points reach the public. However, they could prove very helpful in connecting low-income families where other efforts have fallen short. While a landline program like Comcast’s Internet Essentials has related goals, it’s limited to in-home access — the hotspot approach lets recipients get the information they need wherever they have a wireless signal.

[Image credit: Vincent Desjardins, Flickr]

Filed under: Wireless, Networking, Internet

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Via: Citylab

Source: Knight Foundation (New York), (Chicago)