Jennifer Granick leads the civil-rights division of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit law firm focused on civil rights in the digital age.
Granick came to the attention of the wireless industry several years ago as a Stanford University law professor who helped gain an exemption to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act that allows citizens to unlock proprietary software on their phones. An “unintended consequence” of that law had forbid the practice.
That exemption now makes it possible to take a handset to different carriers (with the same air-interface technology) and should remove one barrier that might smooth the way for greater participation in recycling efforts.
(An unintended consequence of the exemption: criminals who unlocked and resold prepaid phones in bulk were emboldened, but have been successfully prosecuted for that activity.)
There remains a “legal cloud” over whether the DMCA forbids unlocking services, which is “worrisome,” Granick said.
RCR Wireless News: What’s on your plate today that might have an impact on the wireless industry?
Granick: The EFF has a digital coder’s rights project which is about trying to protect computer programmers and researchers from baseless or slightly valid legal claims from statutes that are not intended to apply to them. Wireless phones are ripe for innovation. They’re more and more like personal computers and they’re in everyone’s hands. It’s a democratic technology. People want to write software for them and customize them. Our digital rights project is aimed at the software code writers and programmers who write programs for phones that give consumers a wealth of options for how their cell phones work. That’s directly relevant to this industry. It also relates to efforts (like The Wireless Alliance’s personal data-wipe proposal) that smooth the way for recycling.
RCR Wireless News: Are consumers really concerned that by recycling their phones they’re putting personal data in peril?
Granick: My old Kyocera phone is sitting in my drawer because it has all my contacts’ phone numbers in it. I have to get rid of that information before I give that handset to anyone.
RCR Wireless News: So the data-wipe capability promoted by The Wireless Alliance is worthwhile?
Granick: It’s very important. Also, if it eases the ability to refurbish that phone for resale on another carrier, that also removes barriers to reuse of those handsets.
RCR Wireless News: On a broader topic in which you’ve been involved, do you think the legislation giving the telecommunications carriers retroactive immunity from lawsuits over warrantless wiretapping will be revisited by future administrations and/or Congress?
Granick: We hope so. The EFF was a major opponent of that legislation, because we have a lawsuit pending against AT&T over warrantless wiretapping. It’s a real travesty that this immunity was passed. We’re hopeful a new administration – and the courts – will take a look at the legislation and whether that immunity is valid. You want to incentivize the telco industry to protect the interests of its consumers, not give it a blank check for past illegal behavior. It’s a dangerous precedent for consumers and for privacy.
