| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Court keeps cellphone network ‘kill switch’ a secret
It only took one sentence for the United States Court of Appeals to keep the federal government’s emergency plan to disable cellular service a secret. It was a very long sentence, but it got the job done.
This ruling reinforces the Department of Homeland Security’s attempts to block Freedom of Information Act requests that it feels will endanger public safety.
“Upon consideration of appellee’s petition for rehearing en banc, the response thereto, and the absence of a request by any member of the court for a vote, it is ordered that the petition be denied,” the appeals court said, upholding its earlier decision in February.
The fuss revolves around a policy called Standard Operating Procedure 303, which is “a shutdown and restoration process for use by commercial and private wireless networks in the event of a national crisis,” according to the IT Law Wiki. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) brought the suit after San Francisco officials blocked cellphone service to prevent a protest in 2011.
