2. Personal computer/web browser identification examines the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) browser header and other information from the user's computer or device, and compares them to what are expected. This approach compares the time expected from a user's originating geolocation with the actual timestamp that was applied to the information (Malphrus, 2009).
Taken together, these trends in geolocation technologies indicate that like it or not, consumers will increasingly be subjected to situations in which their precise geolocation is known and broadcast to others who may want to use this information for illegal or unethical purposes and these issues are discussed further below.
Legal Implications of Geolocation Technology
Although geolocation technologies have a global scope, there are some specific legal implications for these technologies as they are applied in the United States with respect to the 4th Amendment and Americans' expectations of privacy as discussed further below.
Overview of 4th Amendment. Part of the Bill of Rights, the 4th Amendment establishes fundamental constitutional privacy protections. For instance, according to Black's Law Dictionary, the 4th Amendment is "the amendment of the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing people the right to be secure in their homes and property against unreasonable searches and seizures and providing that no warrants shall issue except upon probable cause and then only as to specific places to be searched and persons and things to be seized" (1999, p. 657). The 4th Amendment therefore establishes an expectation of privacy among American citizens as discussed further below.
Expectation of Privacy. The specific provisions of the 4th Amendment provide the more general framework in which American citizens are guaranteed an expectation of privacy. Over the years, the Supreme Court has expanded the jurisdictional venues in which the expectation of privacy can be legitimately applied, including personally owned vehicles and other locations (Bloom, 2003). The expectation of privacy has been increasingly eroded in recent years, though, through the ability of innovative telecommunications technologies to intrude on even the sanctum sanctorum of Americans' homes and businesses in ways never envisioned by the Founding Fathers. The issue of Internet privacy became the focus of attention in the U.S. In 1996 due in part to pressure from the European Union that had promulgated its "Data Directiev" that included protections for personal information collected by online services in member states (Matwyshyn, 2004). The response to the potential for these Internet-based technologies to invade the privacy of consumers at will was intense: "In the legal private sector in the late 1990s, the technology bubble turned the life of every technology transactions attorney into a frenzy of questions without clear answers, particularly in connection with potential privacy liability and privacy policies" (Matwyshyn, 2004, p. 494).
Despite the lack of a codified set of guidelines for disclosing data collection policies in online venues, an increasing number of enterprises elected to do voluntarily for public relations purposes and Congress decided it was time to provide standard guidelines for Web sites and other mobile services that routinely collected personal information (Matwyshyn, 2004). Although privacy advocates and business lobbies lined up on both sides of this issue, Congress finally took action and by April 2000, the United States had passed the first set of online consumer data protection legislation (Matwyshyn, 2004).
Previous Rulings and Precedents. Precedential case law that affects current applications of 4th Amendment privacy protections include the privacy protection model that was based on Justice Brandeis's dissent in Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928). In this case, a narrow majority (five of the nine justices) held that federal official's wiretapping of telephone wires was not a 4th Amendment-protected search or seizure activity because there was no physical trespass and no tangible evidence had been collected (Thierer & Crews, 2003). In his dissent, Justice Brandeis articulated a concept that would have far-reaching implications: "The makers of our Constitution & #8230; conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone -- the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men" (Olsmstead v. United States, pp. 478 -- 79).
The importance of this case would be manifest 4 decades later when the Supreme Court decided Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967) and applied Justice Brandeis' reasoning in Olmstead to a forerunner to geolocation-type of information case. According to Thierer and Crews, "In Katz v. United States, the [Court] addressed the...
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