Houses, Papers, and Effects: Updated

This blog writes about control systems, sensors, and the internet of things (IoT). Long-time readers know that I am concerned about privacy, and how the techniques of big data can erode privacy through accumulation of the most insignificant facts. Occasionally, I even slide over into my perception that the Supreme Court Justices all too frequently err because they do not understand technology, and how easy it is to erode the protections our Constitution grants us.

In pre-revolutionary times, officers of the crown used writs of assistance to justify widespread searches of people and their possessions. The business documents and correspondence would frequently be confiscated and or destroyed. This violated the rights of Englishmen, long established, to be secure in their homes from even the King’s men, unless there was a warrant served, based upon testimony made under oath. This violation of long-standing law was a significant factor in convincing many that a break with England was necessary.

In the 18th century, people kept their most significant documents in their desk at home. If they wanted to transport their papers or to conduct business, they would bring their papers, often in a locked box. There was no easy way to make copies of these documents; if they were lost they were irreplaceable. There was no general right recognized which permitted government agents to check the contents of these papers. In the Declaration of Independence, the then colonists chastised their government for “for abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies”

The Bill of Rights codifies things that governments must not do to its citizens, no matter their motive. The 4^th amendment codifies the handling of personal and business documents.

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Even mail, sorted, handled, and delivered by a government agency, the post office, could not be searched while in transit without specific warrant.

Today, we store our documents in the cloud. If we don’t store them there, we back them up to the cloud. Our correspondence goes through Gmail. We share documents with partners using DropBox. Every persona and professional document we have is stored on a computer somewhere, and usually off-site.

Because the Justices have not understood technology, they have treated this information as if it were transactional documents belonging to the company that holds it. Electronic documents held in the clouds by a third party today receive almost no protection. These documents are indistinguishable from the private correspondence and papers of colonial times. They are no more novel than papers typed out with a typewriter were different from those hand-copied in prior times.

There are several proposed laws in congress that would assign to these electronic documents the same protections as are held by paper documents. In essence, these laws would declare that our electronic backups, our email, and our cloud shared storage are exactly the type of papers and effects described in the fourth amendment.

A petition as whitehouse.gov asks the executive branch to support these laws.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/reform-ecpa-tell-government-get-warrant/nq258dxk

Please, go to whitehouse.gov and sign the petition.

They're back

There have been signs for days, but we see a few signs most springs. On Wednesday there were a few in the driveway, but Wednesday it had turned cold. Thursday, they I just saw smaller pieces of the ones I saw the day before. There was still no sign of them this morning, when I went in to town and the farmer’s market. When I got home, though, it was certain. They’re back.

This is now a cicada swarm year in central North Carolina.

Cicada’s are the sound of the south in summer, my mind. On a hot evening in the summer, they buzz in the trees. You can hear them individually, one in that tree, two over there. So-called annual cicada are an every year event, with life cycles of two or three years, they make their appearance every summer, and it lasts all summer.

In the dog days, in the South, the evening air envelopes and caresses you, a thick sensuous mélange, part steam bath, part scents of the honeysuckle and the night blooming nicotiania. Fireflies do their mating dance, the males rising off the lawn flashing until as the females beacon them back down. Dog-day cicada’s are just a part of the enveloping warmth, not really separate, as candlelight might be part of a warm bath, separate, but inseparable when present.

These are not dog-day cicadas, today.

Periodic cicadas com earlier in the year, and they are pitiable creatures. They are slow, they are fat, they are the junk food of the avian world, and no bird can eat just one. They crawl out of the ground, and slowly up the trees, calling for a mate. That slow crawl, and that long mating song means that they cannot hide.

And yet, as slow as they are, as defenseless as they are, they are fashion plates. The have large eyes might be black or bright red., depending on the swarm. They have large iridescent wings, although I never see them fly. It’s a wonder that any survive the one or two days that they are above ground to reproduce.

What these guys do do, is they overwhelm the predators. Because the cicadas do not come every year, the birds do not, cannot, count on them. So many come at once that they overwhelm the ability of the birds to eat them. Nut trees do the same, as they have evolved for good years and bad years so some will escape the squirrels (and others). Nut trees will even communicate chemically at a distance, to align those good years and bad years; this reproduction strategy requires the whole community to participate. But good years for nut trees are not as distinctive as a good swarm of cicadas.

This afternoon, when I returned, it sounded first like the biggest motorcycle rally ever, still miles away, but revving over the hills. One year, I thought that a long threatened development along the river had started, and that dozens of caterpillar bulldozers must be re-arranging the woods. Today, after all the rough weather we have had, it sounds like a tornado, a couple miles away.

Up close, at the edge of the yard, the sound is the same as on a summer’s eve, with individuals calling from the trees. The swarm, though, now that is an eerie sound that does not let up. Yes, they’re back.