Hillicon Valley: Supreme Court requires warrants for cellphone location data | Amazon workers protest facial recognition tech sales | Uber driver in fatal crash was streaming Hulu | SpaceX gets contract to launch spy satellite

View in Browser     The Cyber and Tech overnights have joined forces to give you Hillicon Valley, The Hill's new comprehensive newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Olivia Beavers (@olivia_beavers) and Morgan Chalfant (@mchalfant16), and the tech team, Harper Neidig (@hneidig) and Ali Breland (@alibreland), on Twitter. Send us your scoops and tips.   MAJOR SUPREME COURT RULING ON CELLPHONE SEARCHES: The Supreme Court ruled Friday that law enforcement in most cases has to obtain a warrant in order to search and seize long-term cell phone records that would show a person's location. In a 5-4 ruling, the court held that the Fourth Amendment's protections against an unreasonable search protects people from having the government acquire their cell-site records from wireless providers in run-of-the-mill criminal investigations. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court's four liberal justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, to make up the majority. Justice Anthony Kennedy dissented along with conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch. Case facts: The case before the court centered on Timothy Carpenter, who argued the government violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure when it obtained records from his wireless provider revealing his location over 127 days. Authorities used the data as evidence at his trial to convict him of a string of robberies at Radio Shack and T-Mobile stores in Michigan and Ohio from December 2010 to March 2011. The government claimed it was well within its right under the Stored Communications Act of 1986 to obtain the records through a court order, which requires police to show reasonable grounds to believe the information is relevant to their criminal investigation. The big takeaway: The ruling marked a major win for privacy rights in the digital age. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which represented Carpenter in the case, praised the court for bringing privacy laws in line with modern day life. "The government can no longer claim that the mere act of using technology eliminates the Fourth Amendment's protections," ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler said in a statement. How it's playing in Washington: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a major advocate for privacy and digital rights on Capitol Hill, hailed the ruling as striking "a blow against the creeping expansion of government intrusion into the most personal parts of Americans' lives." "The court's recognition that digital devices can generate 'near-perfect surveillance' of a person's private life is a validation of the vital protections against unreasonable search and seizure provided by our Constitution," Wyden said. Read more about today's ruling here.     FACE OFF: A group of Amazon employees are pressuring company leadership to stop selling its facial recognition software to law enforcement and to stop providing services to companies who work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "We refuse to build the platform that powers ICE, and we refuse to contribute to tools that violate human rights. As ethically concerned Amazonians, we demand a choice in what we build, and a say in how it is used," a group of Amazon workers wrote in a letter obtained by The Hill and posted on Amazon's internal wiki addressed to CEO Jeff Bezos. In their letter, Amazon workers criticized the company selling its facial recognition service – Amazon Web Services Rekognition – to law enforcement and government agencies, citing "historic militarization of police, renewed targeting of Black activists, and the growth of a federal deportation force currently engaged in human rights abuses." "This will be another powerful tool for the surveillance state, and ultimately serve to harm the most marginalized," the workers wrote. Microsoft is up next: Microsoft employees told The Hill earlier this week that they didn't find CEO Satya Nadella's response to their demands that the company drop its ICE contract to be sufficient and said they're planning more action. More here on the latest controversy in Silicon Valley.   UBER DRIVER IN FATAL CRASH WAS WATCHING HULU: Police say an Uber driver whose self-driving car struck and killed a pedestrian was streaming a television show on her phone when the accident happened. A report from the Tempe, Ariz., police obtained by Reuters through a Freedom of Information Act request described the crash as "entirely avoidable." According to records the police received from streaming service Hulu, the driver, Rafaela Vasquez, was watching the show "The Voice." She could face manslaughter charges. Maricopa County prosecutors will make the ultimate decision on whether or not to charge her. Some context: While Uber says that it prohibits drivers from looking at any device while they're driving and tells them that doing so is a fireable offense, they also expect them   ELON MUSK'S SPACEX NETS BIG SATELLITE CONTRACT: Elon Musk's SpaceX will soon use the most powerful commercial rocket available to launch an Air Force spy satellite. The service awarded SpaceX a $130 million contract "to deliver the Air Force Space Command-52 satellite to its intended orbit" using the company's Falcon Heavy rocket, according to a notice posted to the Defense Department's website. The satellite is on track to launch in 2020 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with SpaceX providing "launch vehicle production and mission, as well as integration, launch operations and spaceflight worthiness activities." The contract, part of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, marks the first major deal for the private space company to launch a larger spy satellite. SpaceX in March won a $290 million contract to help launch other satellites as part of the program. Why this is big news: SpaceX beat out its biggest rival, United Launch Alliance (ULA), for the contract to launch the AFSC-52 satellite. The Lockheed Martin and Boeing joint venture previously had a monopoly on the Air Force program meant to launch sensitive payloads into space. More here.   ELON MUSK HAS OTHER PROBLEMS THOUGH: Tesla will close about a dozen solar facilities in nine states as a part of its ongoing moves to downsize, according to a Reuters report. The closures come as part of Tesla's decision last week to cut 9 percent of its workforce. The cuts will be to Tesla's solar division formerly known as SolarCity and include ending a solar retail sales partnership with Home Depot, which employees told Reuters was responsible for half its solar sales. The company will keep 60 installation facilities open and close 13 to 14 -- documents reviewed by Reuters varied in their final count. More on Tesla's troubles here.   NOMINATION ALERT: President Trump is nominating Joseph Maguire, the CEO of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation and a career naval special warfare officer, to serve as director of the National Counterterrorism Center within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the White House said Friday.   LONGREAD OF THE DAY: Elon Musk has been in a bit of a row with the media lately. He's criticized the industry as too profit driven and not trustworthy, floating the idea that he should create a startup allowing the public to rate and vet media sources. BuzzFeed writes about how Musk's frustration with the media. Some believe that Musk's criticism of the media is tied to problems at his company Tesla. But some employees tell Buzzfeed it's been a long standing issue. "He'll read an obscure critical post by, like, some Belgian blogger at 3 in the morning and he'll wake up people on the comms team and demand this person be crushed," one former employee told BuzzFeed.   A LIGHTER TWITTER CLICK: Hello Clippy, I would like an iced latte to go please.   ON TAP FOR NEXT WEEK: Accused NSA leaker Reality Winner will appear in federal court in Georgia for a plea hearing on Tuesday. The Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing examining virtual currencies as a potential vehicle for foreign interference on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will discuss the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Reauthorization Act of 2018. The House Oversight Committee will examine the Trump administration's plan to reorganize the government on Wednesday. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace will host an event on protecting the financial system from cyber threats on Wednesday. The House Small Business Committee will hold a hearing assessing ZTE's threat to small businesses on Wednesday. The House Committee on Science will hold a hearing on the threat of ISMI catchers on Wednesday.   NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: How the disaffection with Silicon Valley is playing into tensions between Washington Post workers and Jeff Bezos. (Vanity Fare) Those little electronic kiosks on tables at chain restaurants are hurting workers. (BuzzFeed) How tech conquered America's cities. (The New York Times) The subscription model takeover is nearly complete. (The Ringer) A summary of tech employee reactions to their firm's work with ICE. (Mother Jones) China allegedly stole chip designs from an American company. (The New York Times) Wyden presses for more information on telecommunication companies selling customers' location data to low-level law enforcement agencies. (Motherboard) AlienVault reveals new research on malicious cyber activity linked to North Korea.           Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Technology Newsletters     Forward Technology Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.