Podcasts are audio files that you can listen to on your computer or download to a portable audio device. Podcasts can be posted on a blog or website and only require a microphone to produce, which is part of the good and the bad of podcasts. On the good side is a new blog with podcasts from fellow private investigator and PI News Link reader, Scott Stys. The Curbside Investigator is a good example of podcasts as a savvy marketing tool that is also informative and entertaining. And if he adds me to his blogroll I might add him to mine!

The Second Circuit, Court of Appeal for California (Los Angeles) has published an opinion upholding last year’s ruling by the Superior Court that divorce proceedings cannot be closed to the public. I previously wrote about the case in which Ronald Burkle sought to have portions of his divorce file sealed. The Circuit Court summary mirrored the conclusions of the lower court: the court should not be mandated to suspend discretion over the sealing of specific documents

Family Code section 2024.61 requires a court, upon the request of a party to a divorce proceeding, to seal any pleading that lists and provides the location or identifying information about the financial assets and liabilities of the parties. We conclude that section 2024.6 is unconstitutional on its face. The First Amendment provides a right of access to court records in divorce proceedings. While the privacy interests protected by section 2024.6 may override the First Amendment right of access in an appropriate case, the statute is not narrowly tailored to serve overriding privacy interests. Because less restrictive means exist to achieve the statutory objective, section 2024.6 operates as an undue burden on the First Amendment right of public access to court records.

Some of the news sites that are writing about the solicitation of personal information and telephone call records from the telecommunications company are getting advertising revenue from businesses that sell these records on the Internet. These rotating ads are provided by Google Adsense and the placement sites have little control over which specific products or services appear. The recent article in Wired, Devious Tactic Snags Phone Data, lists an advertisement for DetectivesUSA. But the each time you visit the Wired site a different set of promotional links may appear, changing with the click of the mouse. The DetectivesUSA site offers landline and cell records to the general public.

The Missing Amendment has a list of the news articles on privacy and personal information.

The debate over the sale of personal information will continue in the courts and within regulatory agencies, targeting other forms of data sales, such as residential addresses associated with postal and private mailboxes.

The Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff’s Department has unveiled an online database of outstanding arrest warrants that is searchable by partial name. The search results return address, date of birth and original offense.

Technorati Tags: arizona, maricopa+county, arrest+warrants

Bestpeoplesearch operated by Intelligent eCommerce has attempted to distance itself from other cell phone telephone log resellers by posting a guide, How To Protect Your Cell Phone Records. This site is one that EPIC mentioned in its complaint to the FCC, which I wrote about in my squib on regulation. Two of the suggestions are for the account subscriber to request that the vendor remove call logs from their bill and that any telephone inquiry for information be denied, in favor of the account holder appearing in person at a company store and showing their id.

Technorati Tags: cell+phones, regulation

The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that the police reports of the Harvard University Police Department are not public records.

The Court also rejected The Crimson’s claims that private entities, once endowed with certain state powers, become public entities. Instead, the Court held that even when granted special powers, HUPD does not become “an agency of the commonwealth such that it becomes subject to the mandates of the public records law.”

This determination runs counter to an Indiana Court of Appeals decision that the retention of records by a private entity related to government agency business are public records.

Surely the authorization accorded to any police agency to arrest falls within the public purview.

Technorati Tags: massachusetts, police+records

A public group has been added to the endless collection of Yahoo Groups, discussing surveillance equipment, what to use and what to lose. The site is aptly named PI Gear, but the url reads, to some eyes, pig-ear. Whatever! The site description sums it up.

PI Gear is the place where users of electronic surveillance equipment can discuss and review various products used by private investigators and law enforcement throughout the world. Members are encouraged to openly discuss in a professional manner their experiences with products, what works, what doesn’t work, and practical techniques can be offered to maximize the benefit of any surveillance tool or product.

Check out this new group established by Jimmie Mesis at PI Gear.

The Consumer Telephone Records Protection Act of 2006 was introduced by Senator Charles Schumer as pressure bears down on Congress to reign in Internet data brokers selling telephone call logs. Schumer leads his press release with rally-the-troops language.

Pretexts to telephone companies or their customers to obtain account information would be illegal. The language of the bill doesn’t seem to be available but a press report by RCR News provides some background. Needless to say, there’s no mention of exceptions for collection of judgments, child abduction, missing persons cases or other matters related to court actions or security.

Technorati Tags: cell+phone, pretext, data+brokers

The Indiana Legislature is reviewing a proposed bill that would make vital records - birth and death certificates - confidential and open to review only by certain classes of the public. Exceptions would be made for family members, genealogists and journalists - although it’s a questionable policy to give access to a specific segment of the general public, excluding others. The putative motive is to thwart terrorism and identity theft but no study or instance of the use of Indiana death records has linked death records to these activities, according to the report in the IndyStar.

Technorati Tags: indiana, vital+records

News organizations, consumer watchdog groups and political bloggers have been quick to demonstrate the ease with which consumer telephone logs can be purchased from online unregulated vendors. EPIC, which details 40 websites that offer these for sale, has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to establish more stringent security standards for phone companies, which collect sensitive information, including logs of calls that subscribers make on their phones. This week, Senator Harry Reid sent a letter to the FCC requesting they investigate this violation of privacy as a danger to national security.

The advent of the Internet, a minimally regulated environment, gives merchants access to a new, enormous audience. Increased visibility has also brought more scrutiny to investigative methods, which in the past were little known outside of a small world.

Recently the Chicago Police Department and the FBI have reported concern that they may be under threat or their investigations compromised by nefarious types gaining access to their agents’ cell phone logs. Erine Rizzo, the Illinois PI who unabashedly proclaims his frequent purchase of phone records, is hitching a ride on this super nova story. Why is it that the private investigators who freely spout about the grey market data they can secure aren’t members of their state PI organizations?

Information gathering approaches that could be ethically applied to execute court issued judgments, court mandated due diligence or the tracking of missing people are curtailed through current state and federal laws limiting access to motor vehicle, voter registration and financial records.

Topic continues to next post…
Technorati Tags: telephone+records, regulation