Only the DOJ Knows: The Secret Law of Electronic Surveillance

This Article examines a troubling pattern in the application of federal law enforcement surveillance statutes-namely, those portions of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (the ECPA ) sometimes known as the Pen Register Statute ( PRS ) and the Stored Communications Act- ( SCA )-whereby federal prosecutors secretly and routinely obtain court authorization for surveillance that Congress did not intend and which may violate the Fourth Amendment

The Transparency Reporting Toolkit: Best Practices for Reporting on U.S. Government Requests for User Information

The Transparency Reporting Toolkit is a project by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI). Using research on the current state of transparency reporting, the project aims to identify best practices, create a template transparency report, and establish reporting guidelines. These resources will be shared publicly to foster standardization in reporting and provide companies new to reporting with an easy-to-use set of tools essential to crafting their transparency reports. Starting over two years ago, we began conducting interviews with companies about their processes for creating transparency reports in order to identify lessons that could be helpful to companies that had not yet created reports. Building off of that work, in November 2013, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, in conjunction with the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Open Technology Institute, the Global Network Initiative, and others, convened a dialogue at the University of California, Berkeley with academics, civil society, and representatives from a variety of Internet companies. That meeting was followed by an East Coast convening, hosted by OTI in July 2014, with strong civil society and academic representation. Those dialogues informed these materials

A Novel and Lethal De Novo LQT-3 Mutation in a Newborn with Distinct Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutic Response

SCN5A encodes the alpha-subunit (Na(v)1.5) of the principle Na(+) channel in the human heart. Genetic lesions in SCN5A can cause congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS) variant 3 (LQT-3) in adults by disrupting inactivation of the Na(v)1.5 channel. Pharmacological targeting of mutation-altered Na(+) channels has proven promising in developing a gene-specific therapeutic strategy to manage specifically this LQTS variant. SCN5A mutations that cause similar channel dysfunction may also contribute to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and other arrhythmias in newborns, but the prevalence, impact, and therapeutic management of SCN5A mutations may be distinct in infants compared with adults.Here, in a multidisciplinary approach, we report a de novo SCN5A mutation (F1473C) discovered in a newborn presenting with extreme QT prolongation and differential responses to the Na(+) channel blockers flecainide and mexiletine. Our goal was to determine the Na(+) channel phenotype caused by this severe mutation and to determine whether distinct effects of different Na(+) channel blockers on mutant channel activity provide a mechanistic understanding of the distinct therapeutic responsiveness of the mutation carrier. Sequence analysis of the proband revealed the novel missense SCN5A mutation (F1473C) and a common variant in KCNH2 (K897T). Patch clamp analysis of HEK 293 cells transiently transfected with wild-type or mutant Na(+) channels revealed significant changes in channel biophysics, all contributing to the proband's phenotype as predicted by in silico modeling. Furthermore, subtle differences in drug action were detected in correcting mutant channel activity that, together with both the known genetic background and age of the patient, contribute to the distinct therapeutic responses observed clinically.The results of our study provide further evidence of the grave vulnerability of newborns to Na(+) channel defects and suggest that both genetic background and age are particularly important in developing a mutation-specific therapeutic personalized approach to manage disorders in the young

The Transparency Reporting Toolkit: Reporting Guide and Template for Reporting U.S. Government Requests for User Information

The Transparency Reporting Toolkit is a joint project by New America’s Open Technology Institute and Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. The purpose of the Toolkit is to make it easier for companies to create better transparency reports about government requests for user data. Similarly, by providing a template and best practices, the Toolkit aims to make it easier for new companies to begin transparency reporting. By following the recommendations in this guide, which are grounded in existing best practices, transparency reports can become more consistent, easier to understand, and more effective

ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION

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