Well another Appeals Court has ruled that once you place your data into a third party’s possession you no longer have any expectation of privacy thus you have no 4th amendment protections if the government wants access to that data. While this case was about cell phone tracking information the ruling goes into detail of what they consider protected or not protected information.

http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/GRAHAM_ca4_20160531.pdf

From this ruling it is clear the courts feel any information gleamed from the user account in the course of offering their service is not protected information, user has no expectation of privacy, no 4th amendment protections. They specifically state the email addresses a user sends/receives email from is not protected. With most Cloud services providing at least basic SPAM and AV scanning my take is that the email in general would no longer fall under protected data either using their same argument, the user knows the third party has to have access to the email in order to scan that email.

“ United States v. Forrester, 512 F.3d 500, 510 (9th Cir. 2008). The Forrester court also held that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in either the to/from addresses of a user’s emails or the “total amount of data transmitted to or from [a user’s] account.” Id. at 510-11.”

Using that same logic and the courts statements in the ruling it seems to me the use of any Cloud provider for files and data also falls under these same guidelines. Clearly a third party file sharing service has to have access to the names of the files being uploaded thus at the very least the names of those files is not protected by the 4th. While the data in those files may be protected it is very common for users to use file names which are very descriptive of what the file actually contains. That being the case if the Government asked for the listing of all files held by a user the Cloud provider would have to provide that list without a warrant. Now with that list if there was a file called “my tax return cheats.doc” it’s again clear to me the Government could now use that info as probable cause to get a warrant for the data itself.

The ruling goes on to cite the SCA which is of critical importance to those that provide some sort of Cloud data storage. The court reminds us that “communications” have a specified time limit in which a warrant is or is not required to access stored communications. What will be interesting is to see if the Government or the courts start to expand what is considered “communications”. Is a file placed on a Cloud file sharing service which is opened by another person considered “communications”? Again, clearly information was communicated from one person to another so is that enough to meet the definition of communications? If so then all those files stored on Cloud services that have a date older than 180 days are free to Governmental snooping with nothing more than a subpoena presented to the Cloud provider, not the user/owner of that data.

“At the heart of the SCA lies § 2703. That provision establishes a calibrated set of procedural safeguards based on the type and amount of information sought and the length of time the records are stored. For instance, “only pursuant to a warrant,” 18 U.S.C. § 2703(a), can the government obtain the contents of a communication that is in electronic storage with a service provider for 180 days or less. Alternatively, the government has a number of options for compelling the disclosure of non-content customer records, or the contents of communications in electronic storage for more than 180 days: Appeal: 12-4659 Doc: 227 Filed: 05/31/2016 Pg: 39 of 66 40 “obtain[] a warrant,” id. §§ 2703(b)(1)(A), (c)(1)(A), “use[] an administrative subpoena . . . or trial subpoena,” id. § 2703(b)(1)(B)(i), or “obtain[] a court order.””

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Primo Water Corporation released their quarterly results and once again were unable to post a profit selling water. Granted I’m pushing a bit of a joke here in wondering if you can drive trucks around town selling customers water for profit, I’m sure somebody out there does just that. In fact Primo actually sold almost thirty million dollars in water and services.

What always gets me though about these types of reports is the year after year reporting of losses meaning year after year a company couldn’t make money selling their product yet year after year they are able to stay in business. I can remember from years back being told by an accountant that the first rule of any business is to not make a profit because profit means you pay Uncle Sam more money.

Click here for the text of the 2014 earning conference call.

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Starting January 1st anyone buying gas in North Carolina will pay 37.5 cents per gallon in North Carolina Fuel Tax. This makes North Caroline the 8th highest gas tax state in the US and the highest in the southern US by far. Our southern cousin South Carolina comes in at half our tax rate while even Virginia is just over half our rate. Think about it folks. That means when we are paying $2.50 a gallon which we think is really cheap compared to the three something we were paying not long ago our neighbors in South Carolina will be paying under $2.30. On the average tank that’s going to be about $4 a tankful each of us pays that South Carolinians don’t!

So when your filling up that next tank of gas then driving down roads full of pot holes maybe you just might think about calling your Representatives in Raleigh and asking where all that money goes. Then again they know exactly where it goes. Just drive around Raleigh on their eight lane super highways with exit ramps that start a mile before the exist and you will too.

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It’s that time of year again, get your FREE Dozen! Per their post it says you don’t even have to print the coupon, just show it to them on your phone.

http://www.krispykreme.com/dayofthedozens

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Here’s a big news item, ok not really. Recent testing of wireless services in major US cities has Winston-Salem at the bottom of the list. Anyone who has travelled outside of Winston-Salem and especially to other major cities outside of North Carolina will quickly attest to this fact. I myself was recently in an area dominated by major technology players and I found my Verizon access was screaming along. When I got back to the Winston-Salem area I called Verizon to complain about how fast that area was yet how slow the local area is and was finally told that in fact Winston-Salem isn’t really 4G but 3G Enhanced, whatever that means. It clearly means it’s not a full 4G rollout which as I said was so obvious when I was in a true 4G area.

http://www.rootmetrics.com/us/blog/special-reports/which-us-cities-have-the-best-mobile-performance

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Enough Said!

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Sounds like fuel cost and low expected sales cost Greensboro and Beer Snobs the chance at a 60 million dollar brewery and brew pub as Stone Brewing will not be coming to Greensboro.

“anticipated fuel costs automatically locked North and South Carolina out of contention,”

http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/blog/2014/07/stone-brewing-passes-over-greensboro-for-60m-east.html

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It’s HERO Appreciation Day at Krispy Kreme on April 28th so with the purchase of a dozen doughnuts you get a FREE Dozen Glazed.

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