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New law review article: "Automation and the Fourth Amendment"

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Automation and the Fourth Amendment by Matthew Tokson in 96 U.Iowa L. Rev. 581 (2010). Abstract: The Supreme Court has held that an individual relinquishes any Fourth Amendment interest in information that he or she voluntarily discloses to a third party. Known as the “Third Party Doctrine,” this controversial rule is increasingly problematic in an age where a large proportion of personal communications and transactions are carried out over the Internet. Internet users expose virtually all of the information they generate online—e-mails, web-surfing histories, search terms, and more—to online service providers. As such, many scholars have assumed that Internet information will be unprotected by the Fourth Amendment. Yet the information disclosed to these online third parties is generally not exposed to human beings at all; rather, it is processed entirely by automated equipment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 21, 2011 (boomark / email).