The 4th Amendment in the Internet
Privacy in the Age of the Net
"The
right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated."
Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
What people read, research or access remains a fundamental
matter of privacy. One should be able to access all constitutionally protected
information and at the same time feel secure that what one reads, researches
or finds through our Nation's libraries is no one's business but their own.
There are many privacy bills that have been introduced into recent Congresses
relating to business, health, student and other records. The expansion of
e-government, e-commerce, and other forms of electronic transactions, including
library services, raises serious questions for the library community in protecting
individual privacy, especially the privacy and confidentiality of library
patron records.
Not only the internet community is affected by "warrant-less" searches
and seizures. This practice has been going on in every cross section of the
population.
Police boast that their new technique, the "knock and talk" produces
thousands of warrant less "consensual" searches of private residences
every year. It goes like this: "Excuse me sir, /ma'm, but we'd just like
to come in and look around. It will go much easier for you than if you make
us get a warrant." Most folks make the mistake of letting them in. Can
it be that no one understands that the constitution is not a technicality
but the rules that tell the government what it can and can't do?
One thing it says for sure: with only the narrowest of exceptions, the police can't enter your home without a warrant.
The Constitution would not have been ratified by the individual states
without a Bill of Rights, and its Fourth Amendment contained very specific
restrictions on government search and seizure: a warrant that must list the
exact place and persons to be searched, and there must be probable cause to
believe a crime is being, has been, or will be committed.
One has the right to tell the police to get a search warrant before they can
enter your house and look around. How is it handled on the Internet? Should
agencies have the right to go through your mail? The controversy is that if
people get noticed before they get searched there is a good chance that they
will have time enough to get rid of the evidence, especially in the age of
the internet. Erased files and folders are irretrievably lost and cannot be
recovered. Should the 4th Amendment be modified for the internet generation?
It is certain that entering one's e-mail account is different than walking
into one's house. Nonetheless, it both violates the 4th Amendment if it is
done without a search warrant. There are certain states, e.g. California,
that allow their agencies to search homes of criminals without a warrant and
that could be used in the Internet world as well.