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N.D.Fla.: Leaving flash drive in a common computer is a waiver of any expectation of privacy

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant’s leaving his thumb drive in a common computer at work was a waiver of his expectation of privacy in it. His boss looked at the thumb drive and reviewed some folders finding child pornography. The boss’s search was not a law enforcement search. United States v. Durdley, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35422 (N.D. Fla. March 11, 2010): Additionally, the subsequent reviews of the thumb drive by police detectives did not exceed the scope of the private review conducted by Mr. Johnson. In United States v. Jacobsen, 466 U.S. 109, 104 S.Ct. 1652, 80 L.Ed.2d 85 (1984), and its predecessor, Walter v. United States, 447 U.S. 649, 100 S.Ct. 2395, 65 L.Ed.2d 410 (1980), the Supreme Court affirmed that an individual can retain a legitimate expectation of privacy after a private individual conducts a search, but in Jacobsen the Court clarified that “additional invasions of [an individual’s] privacy by the Government agent must be tested by the degree to which they exceeded the scope of the private search...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 14, 2010 (boomark / email).