Learning Takeaways for Week 5

1. Our class unanimously agreed that U.S. Congress should enact a statute governing the use of ALPR (Automatic License Plate Reader) technology. Some states have regulations on this technology, but others do not. Some of our primary concerns were:

• Possibility of mistaken identity
• Potentially invasive of privacy - the potential for this technology to be used as a mass tracking system
• Lack of transparency and possible abuse
• Who would have access to the technology?
• How long would the information be retained for? 

2. The consensus we reached was there needs to be a national, uniform regulation of this technology. Not all potential uses of the technology should be permitted. For example, it should be used to help track down a stolen car, or kidnapper, but the data should be stored for a set period of time - say, 90 days. We did not reach a consensus on who could use the technology, or what specific restrictions would be in place. 

3. We distinguished the origins of the quote "With great power comes great responsibility". Though it's commonly known from Uncle Ben in Spiderman, it was originally said by Voltaire. 

4. There is currently a proposal to track all license plates in a certain district of Los Angeles that is known in particular for prostitution. Those tracked in this area would receive a 'Dear John' letter informing them of the illegality of prostitution, etc. We discussed the problems with this proposal, and the implications of the ALPR use in this circumstance. Ultimately, we agreed that this proposal was not appropriate. 

5. We discussed two court cases, Riley v. California, and Wurie v. U.S., and the implications they have on government access to cell phone records. Ultimately, we learned that because today's cell phones are much different from previous models (they are essentially small handheld computers), we have a reasonable expectation that the contents of our phones will be private. One could argue that we carry more valuable, personal information on our cell phones than we do in searchable files at home. Law enforcement must obtain a warrant before searching a cell phone incident to arrest.

6. We discussed the 'third party doctrine', which states that we have no expectation of privacy to information that we voluntarily give to third parties. However, it is important to note that with technological advances, the doctrine has been outdated. Even though things like our online shopping information and bank information is through a third party, we realistically do not have a choice on whether this information is handed over. People have a reasonable expectation that these providers do not share our information for purposes other than why they were originally collected. One solution proposed was that this doctrine should only apply when the third party is the recipient of the information, rather than the conduit. Whatever the outcome, it is obvious this doctrine needs to be updated to keep with current times.