Every breath you take, every call you make, I'll be watching you.

Has your cell phone been out of your sight for more than five minutes? Someone may be tracking you on it, right now. A chilling investigation from the Guardian (via Don't Let's Start) shows how easy cell-phone stalking has become:

For the past week I've been tracking my girlfriend through her mobile phone. I can see exactly where she is, at any time of day or night, within 150 yards, as long as her phone is on. It has been very interesting to find out about her day. Now I'm going to tell you how I did it. . . . First I had to get hold of her phone. . . . I only needed it for five minutes.

And as the article notes, existing methods of tracking are just the tip of the iceberg. Scary!

Posted by Kaimipono D. Wenger at 08:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Annoy someone online (anonymously); go to jail

From Declan McCullagh (link via my annoying -- but not anonymous -- friend Steve Evans):

Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. . . . Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.

As McCullough notes, there are a number of problematic issues that arise from this. Many legitimate websites include anonymous or pseudonymous writers.

Will this law mean the end for Juan Non-Volokh, Bitch Ph.D., Plainsman, and legions of other psuedonymous and anonymous bloggers? I certainly hope not. Perhaps a big enough backlash from angry bloggers will have positive results.

UPDATE: Dan S. weighs in with a comment. The change in law affects only the intent analysis. Dan's comment seems to indicate (correct me if I'm wrong) that the statute will still affect only those who send a "communication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent." (However, assuming you're engaged in such activity, the "intent to annoy" will be enough to satisfy the intent requirement of the statute).

So it looks like you're safe -- unless you're sexually harrassing someone via the Internet.

UPDATE 2: New thoughts from bloggers on the further-developing story: Dan Solove argues that the statute does indeed cover more than just sexual harrassment; I suggest that the provision in question may still be limited to cases of obscenity and harrassment; and Kip Esquire goes even further and questions whether the statute covers blogs at all, or whether it's merely meant to cover internet telephony.

UPDATE 3: Further evidence that this is _not_ the end of the world as we know it: Orin Kerr notes that the First Amendment limits application of the statute; Ann Bartow argues that e-mail and blogs are not "telecommunications devices" under the statute.

Posted by Kaimipono D. Wenger at 04:55 PM | Comments (27) | TrackBack