Project 1 – Privacy, Ethics, and Law Enforcement Access to Smart Phones

Project 1: Privacy, Ethics, and Law Enforcement Access to Smart Phones

Case: State of Oregon v. Pittman

https://fedsoc.org/commentary/publications/state-court-docket-watch-state-of-oregon-v-pittman#:~:text=In%20State%20v.%20Pittman%2C%20the%20Oregon%20Supreme%20Court,qualified%20as%20compelling%20an%20incriminating%2C%20testimonial%20statement.%20

Legal Question:

Can an individual be compelled under the law to unlock a smart phone (cell phone)?

Issue:

Is existing law sufficient to protect an individual’s rights when law enforcement agencies seek access to data stored on smart phones, tablet computers, and other mobile devices?

Research Questions:

1. Is there or should there be a right to privacy that would protect an individual from being compelled to allow law enforcement access to data stored on a smart phone or similar device (e.g. tablet computers).

2. What are the legal and ethical implications of requiring device designers and/or vendor to provide bypass mechanisms to allow law enforcement agencies to access data stored on smart devices?

Approach:

1. Research the case listed above (State of Oregon v. Pittman) and similar cases in the United States at both the state and federal levels.

2. Research the right to privacy and whether or not it extends to protecting data stored on smart phones and similar devices.

3. Research instances where law enforcement agencies have sought the assistance, willing or not, of smart phone designers and vendors, to obtain access to data stored on the devices. (See https://www.apple.com/customer-letter/ )

4. Using your research, address the legal question and issue listed in this assignment.

5. Using your research, analyze the importance of the research questions. (Why do these questions need to be answered? What is the potential impact of having or not having answers?)

6. Using your research, analyze and respond to the two research questions.

7. Develop three or more best-practice based recommendations for Smart Phone designers which can address the need to (a) ethically protect smartphone users’ privacy and security and (b) comply with federal and state laws regarding law enforcement access to evidence in criminal cases.

Write:

Using your research, write a 5 pages analysis of the legal and ethical questions/issues listed in this assignment. Your research paper must include the following:

1. An Introduction section that provides information about the case and legal question under study including a summary of the legal and ethical issues.

2. An Analysis section in which you address the following:

a. Why is the stated issue important?

b. Why are the research questions important? (Include both ethical and legal principles in your analysis of the questions).

C. Your research-based analysis which provides answers to the research questions (including citations to sources which support your position).

3. A Summary and Conclusions section.

Submit for Grading:

Submit your research paper in MS Word format using the Project 1 entry in the assignment folder. Your work WILL be scanned by Turn It In.

Additional Information

1. You should have at least ten different, authoritative or scholarly sources cited in your work and listed in your reference list.

2. Deliverables must have a separate title page for references on a separate page at the end of the file. These pages do not count in the recommended page count of this assignment.

3. Your research report should be professional in appearance with consistent use of fonts, font sizes, margins, etc. You should use headings to organize your paper

4. You are expected to credit your sources using in-text citations and reference list entries. Both your citations and your reference list entries must follow a consistent citation style (APA)

5. You are expected to write grammatically correct English in every assignment that you submit for grading.