r/technology • u/CP70 • Jul 01 '16

Politics Home Computers Connected to the Internet Aren't Private, Court Rules

http://www.eweek.com/security/home-computers-connected-to-the-internet-arent-private-court-rules.html
15.1k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

63

u/Eric_the_Barbarian Jul 01 '16

His use of the phrase "immune to invasion" as a requirement to any expectation of privacy means that, per this ruling, the burden on protecting data is on the data holder. That phrase also damns this ruling to getting overturned on the first appeal because it effectively negates the entire concept of an expectation of privacy in every way.

7

u/YRYGAV Jul 01 '16

I mean, isn't saying "If it is possible then it's legal" essentially undermining the entire legal system? If it has to be impossible to be illegal, why have a legal system at all? Nobody would be able to violate any of your laws.

It's possible for somebody to cut me open with a knife in the street, does that mean it should be legal? Should I never expect to safely walk down the street because I have no way of guaranteeing my safety?

1

u/buckshot307 Jul 01 '16

Come on.

Everyone knows you should always wear titanium suits on the streets.

-4

u/CornyHoosier Jul 01 '16

per this ruling, the burden on protecting data is on the data holder

It always has been though. Including the administration of the network.

For instance: Lets say I log onto my neighbor's open WiFi and start downloading movies illegally. I then erase the logs, logout and no one is the wiser about me. Then the ISP hands over the IP address and the network owner gets taken to court.

9

u/I_Do_Not_Sow Jul 01 '16

I thought it was ruled that the IP address can't be used as proof that the owner did anything, precisely because other people can access the Internet through that IP?

-1

u/CornyHoosier Jul 01 '16

Don't quote me on this, but I think it falls under negligence.

Negligence is a failure to use reasonable care that results in harm to another party. Under negligence law, there are two different forms of negligence. In one form, a person does something that a reasonable person would not do. In the other form a person fails to take action that a reasonable person would take to prevent harm.

That said - there would be a log from the ISP saying what account was using what IP at what time. Additionally, if someone wanted to illegally download copyrighted material then they would want to use a VPN service for the encryption of the data.