2017-12-06

Phone-Y War: Digital Privacy

① In 2011, data beamed from Timothy Carpenter's mobile phone to cell towers helped authorities link him to a string of armed robberies.

② Today, America's Supreme Court will ask if that investigative technique violated the Fourth Amendment: "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects".

③ Mr Carpenter's lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union say individuals have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" when they wander about, and that spooks needed a warrant to obtain data showing his location.

④ The government contends that Mr Carpenter should have known that carrying a phone in his pocket makes him a traceable beacon.

⑤ The implications go well beyond one defendant.

⑥ The nine justices will decide to what extent the constitution serves as a bulwark against government access to an ever-expanding trove of personal data.

⑦ The details of minute-by-minute travel should, the ACLU argues, remain private, "as they always have been".

▍生词好句

phoney /ˈfəʊni/: adj. 虚假的

beam /biːm/: vt. 传送 (信号)；微笑

authority /ɔːˈθɒrɪti/: n. 官方 (人员) (本文特指“美国联邦调查局”)

a string of: 一连串的

warrant /ˈwɒr(ə)nt/: n. 拘捕令；搜查令；vt. 担保；保证

spook /spuːk/: n. 密探；间谍

beacon /ˈbiːk(ə)n/: n. 灯塔；无线电信标

bulwark /ˈbʊlwək/: n. 保障

trove /trəʊv/: n. 储藏