Name: Federal Court Agrees: Prosecutors Can’t Keep Forensic Evidence Secret from Defendants
Brand: eff.org
SKU: eff-org-450
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Federal Court Agrees: Prosecutors Can’t Keep Forensic Evidence Secret from Defendants

preview

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItWhen the government tries to convict you of a crime, you have a right to challenge its evidence. This is a fundamental principle of due process, yet prosecutors and technology vendors have routinely argued against disclosing how forensic technology works.For the first time, a federal court on the issue, and the decision marks a victory for civil liberties.EFF teamed up with the ACLU of Pennsylvania to file arguing in favor of defendants’ rights to challenge complex DNA analysis software that implicates them in crimes. The prosecution and the technology vendor Cybergenetics opposed disclosure of the software’s source code on the grounds that the company has a commercial interest in secrecy.The court correctly determined that this secrecy interest could not outweigh a defendant’s rights and ordered the code disclosed to the defense team. The disclosure will be subject to a “protective order” that bars further disclosure, but in a similar previous case a court eventually of source code of a different DNA analysis program after a defense team found serious flaws. This is the second decision this year ordering the disclosure of the secret TrueAllele software. This added scrutiny will help ensure that the software does not contribute to unjust incarceration.Share ItHow transparent are police about surveillance technology? It depends on where you look. When it comes to acceptable levels of secrecy around police tools, states have drawn their lines in very different places, resulting in some communities where it is much harder for the public to know what invasive tools...By unanimous vote, San Francisco's public records appeals body ruled last night that the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) violated state and local laws when it failed to respond adequately to EFF's requests for documents about face recognition and the department's relationship with the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC),...Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter highlights the risks to human rights and personal safety when any single person has complete control over policies affecting almost 400 million users. And in this case, that person has repeatedly demonstrated that they do not understand the realities of platform policy at scale.EFF and the the are seeking to unseal a host of court records documenting a patent dispute between Google and Uniloc, a prolific patent litigant.Secrecy pervades the entire record in Uniloc v. Google. When Google filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the parties...Democracy means allowing everyday people to have their voices heard on public matters involving their communities. One of the goals of civic technology is to allow a more diverse group of people to have input on government affairs through the use of technology and the internet. Beth Noveck, author of...SAN FRANCISCO—As part of its ongoing work to ensure that people can know and understand the laws they live under, , a nonprofit organization, on Thursday vindicated its ability to publicly post important laws online in standard formats, free of copy protections and cumbersome user interfaces.The win for Public...EFF is suing the Department of Homeland Security for transparency into its social media surveillance program targeting visa applicants.Each year during Sunshine Week (March 13-19), The Foilies serve up tongue-in-cheek "awards" for government agencies and assorted institutions that stand in the way of access to information. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock combine forces to collect horror stories about Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state-level public records...For more than three years, EFF has been to court records in a patent case between Uniloc, one of the world’s most prolific patent trolls, and Apple, one of the world’s biggest tech companies. The district court has ruled three different times that the public...Over the last few years, technology platforms have . In one example of this, technology companies have refused to host speech by Palestinian activist Leila Khaled. Khaled is associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group on...Share It

Email updates on news, actions,and events in your area.DEEPLINKS BLOGShare ItWhen the government tries to convict you of a crime, you have a right to challenge its evidence. This is a fundamental principle of due process, yet prosecutors and technology vendors have routinely argued against disclosing how forensic technology works.For the first time, a federal court on the issue, and the decision marks a victory for civil liberties.EFF teamed up with the ACLU of Pennsylvania to file arguing in favor of defendants’ rights to challenge complex DNA analysis software that implicates them in...

public

Kit Walsh

We're the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We defend your civil liberties in a digital world.

Federal Court Agrees: Prosecutors Can’t Keep Forensic Evidence Secret from Defendants

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS