Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

No reasonable expectation of privacy in a computer left on in a common area

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant had no expectation of privacy in his computer in a common military living area that he left on and allowed others to use. [The court also finds there was no expectation of privacy because it was connected to a network, although the search was direct through the keyboard and not the network, a doubtful holding to me.] United States v. Rosario, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37879 (E.D. Ky. May 8, 2008): The Court finds that the search did not violate Rosario's Fourth Amendment protections because he did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in his computer. Rosario connected his computer to a network through which the files on the computer were accessible by other computers on the same network. Furthermore, Rosario admitted that he left his computer on all the time and allowed numerous individuals access to it...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on May 11, 2008 (boomark / email).