{"id":859,"date":"2011-06-07T12:30:59","date_gmt":"2011-06-07T16:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=859"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:57:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:57:05","slug":"head-in-the-iclouds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2011\/06\/07\/head-in-the-iclouds\/","title":{"rendered":"Head in the iClouds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jake Laperruque<\/em><\/p>\n

Yesterday, Steve Jobs wowed the tech world with exciting announcement of Apple\u2019s newest product, iCloud.\u00a0\u00a0iCloud is Apple\u2019s long awaited cloud computing tool.\u00a0 It enables users to sync iPhones (and\u00a0XL sized iPhones<\/a>\u00a0) with Mac computers, and instantly access files and exchange them between devices, using the Internet.\u00a0\u00a0Cloud computing is an excellent way to make life for those with multiple devices (increasingly becoming the norm) easier and more convenient.\u00a0 Given Apple\u2019s focus on creating aesthetic, user-friendly products, iCloud is likely to be highly successful.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span>Apple addicts should beware, however, because iCloud might also seriously compromise your privacy.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0apple.com<\/a>, the free service will enable users to store a variety of items on the Internet, including music, books, documents, and emails.\u00a0 While we certainly want easy access to these things, most people would abhor the notion of giving the government the same easy access.\u00a0\u00a0Yet, putting items in iCloud may do just that.<\/p>\n

Currently, our privacy rights regarding all electronic communications \u2013 including those based in the Internet \u2013 are governed by the Electronic Privacy Communications Act.\u00a0\u00a0The problem is, this law was created in 1986, back when the Internet didn\u2019t exist and\u00a0Apple was promoting itself as the underdog fighting Big Brother<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Now, it is unclear exactly how this significantly outdated legislation applies to technologies such as smartphones, instant messaging, and cloud computing.<\/p>\n

In the absence of clarity, government has reached broadly into cyberspace.\u00a0\u00a0Last year,\u00a0the Justice Department argued<\/a>\u00a0that the law gave it the ability to monitor cell data and emails without a search warrant.\u00a0\u00a0It seems likely that the same argument will be made for cloud computing, which not only contains emails and phone data, but also music, books, and personal documents.\u00a0\u00a0At the same time, the government is considering an\u00a0expansion of CALEA<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 which requires telecommunication providers to design networks to allow government access \u2013 to Internet services.<\/p>\n

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act is in desperate need of revision.\u00a0\u00a0The Internet is reshaping every aspect of our society in new and wondrous ways.\u00a0 Yet, we must continue to preserve the values that have always been and always will be fundamentally important to our society.\u00a0\u00a0Technology cannot be allowed to rush forward while the law lags behind.\u00a0\u00a0A wide array of legislation must be updated in order to effectively serve its purpose.\u00a0 The Electronic Communications Privacy Act is a great place to start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jake Laperruque Yesterday, Steve Jobs wowed the tech world with exciting announcement of Apple\u2019s newest product, iCloud.\u00a0\u00a0iCloud is Apple\u2019s long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQka-dR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}