The Fourth Amendment in an Age of Surveillance

The Fourth Amendment in an Age of Surveillance
Author: David Gray
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2017-04-24
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108210759

The Fourth Amendment is facing a crisis. New and emerging surveillance technologies allow government agents to track us wherever we go, to monitor our activities online and offline, and to gather massive amounts of information relating to our financial transactions, communications, and social contacts. In addition, traditional police methods like stop-and-frisk have grown out of control, subjecting hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens to routine searches and seizures. In this work, David Gray uncovers the original meaning of the Fourth Amendment to reveal how its historical guarantees of collective security against threats of 'unreasonable searches and seizures' can provide concrete solutions to the current crisis. This important work should be read by anyone concerned with the ongoing viability of one of the most important constitutional rights in an age of increasing government surveillance.

Privacy at Risk

Privacy at Risk
Author: Christopher Slobogin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2008-09-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0226762947

Without our consent and often without our knowledge, the government can constantly monitor many of our daily activities, using closed circuit TV, global positioning systems, and a wide array of other sophisticated technologies. With just a few keystrokes, records containing our financial information, phone and e-mail logs, and sometimes even our medical histories can be readily accessed by law enforcement officials. As Christopher Slobogin explains in Privacy at Risk, these intrusive acts of surveillance are subject to very little regulation. Applying the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures, Slobogin argues that courts should prod legislatures into enacting more meaningful protection against government overreaching. In setting forth a comprehensive framework meant to preserve rights guaranteed by the Constitution without compromising the government’s ability to investigate criminal acts, Slobogin offers a balanced regulatory regime that should intrigue everyone concerned about privacy rights in the digital age.

Unwarranted

Unwarranted
Author: Barry Friedman
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2017-02-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0374710902

“At a time when policing in America is at a crossroads, Barry Friedman provides much-needed insight, analysis, and direction in his thoughtful new book. Unwarranted illuminates many of the often ignored issues surrounding how we police in America and highlights why reform is so urgently needed. This revealing book comes at a critically important time and has much to offer all who care about fair treatment and public safety.” —Bryan Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption In June 2013, documents leaked by Edward Snowden sparked widespread debate about secret government surveillance of Americans. Just over a year later, the shooting of Michael Brown, a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, set off protests and triggered concern about militarization of law enforcement and discriminatory policing. In Unwarranted, Barry Friedman argues that these two seemingly disparate events are connected—and that the problem is not so much the policing agencies as it is the rest of us. We allow these agencies to operate in secret and to decide how to police us, rather than calling the shots ourselves. And the courts, which we depended upon to supervise policing, have let us down entirely. Unwarranted tells the stories of ordinary people whose lives were torn apart by policing—by the methods of cops on the beat and those of the FBI and NSA. Driven by technology, policing has changed dramatically. Once, cops sought out bad guys; today, increasingly militarized forces conduct wide surveillance of all of us. Friedman captures the eerie new environment in which CCTV, location tracking, and predictive policing have made suspects of us all, while proliferating SWAT teams and increased use of force have put everyone’s property and lives at risk. Policing falls particularly heavily on minority communities and the poor, but as Unwarranted makes clear, the effects of policing are much broader still. Policing is everyone’s problem. Police play an indispensable role in our society. But our failure to supervise them has left us all in peril. Unwarranted is a critical, timely intervention into debates about policing, a call to take responsibility for governing those who govern us.

Smart Surveillance

Smart Surveillance
Author: Ric Simmons
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2019-08-22
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1108682391

Over the last decade, law enforcement agencies have engaged in increasingly intrusive surveillance methods, from location tracking on cell phones to reading metadata off of e-mails. As a result, many believe we are heading towards an omniscient surveillance state and irrevocable damage to our privacy rights. In Smart Surveillance, Ric Simmons challenges this conventional wisdom by taking a broader look at the effect of new technologies and privacy, arguing that advances in technology can enhance our privacy and our security at the same time. Rather than focusing exclusively on the rise of invasive surveillance technologies, Simmons proposes a fundamentally new method of evaluating government searches - based on quantification, transparency, and efficiency - resulting in a legal regime that can adapt as technology and society change.

The Future of Foreign Intelligence

The Future of Foreign Intelligence
Author: Laura K. Donohue
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2016-02-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 019023539X

Since the Revolutionary War, America's military and political leaders have recognized that U.S. national security depends upon the collection of intelligence. Absent information about foreign threats, the thinking went, the country and its citizens stood in great peril. To address this, the Courts and Congress have historically given the President broad leeway to obtain foreign intelligence. But in order to find information about an individual in the United States, the executive branch had to demonstrate that the person was an agent of a foreign power. Today, that barrier no longer exists. The intelligence community now collects massive amounts of data and then looks for potential threats to the United States. As renowned national security law scholar Laura K. Donohue explains in The Future of Foreign Intelligence, global communications systems and digital technologies have changed our lives in countless ways. But they have also contributed to a worrying transformation. Together with statutory alterations instituted in the wake of 9/11, and secret legal interpretations that have only recently become public, new and emerging technologies have radically expanded the amount and type of information that the government collects about U.S. citizens. Traditionally, for national security, the Courts have allowed weaker Fourth Amendment standards for search and seizure than those that mark criminal law. Information that is being collected for foreign intelligence purposes, though, is now being used for criminal prosecution. The expansion in the government's acquisition of private information, and the convergence between national security and criminal law threaten individual liberty. Donohue traces the evolution of U.S. foreign intelligence law and pairs it with the progress of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. She argues that the bulk collection programs instituted by the National Security Agency amount to a general warrant, the prevention of which was the reason the Founders introduced the Fourth Amendment. The expansion of foreign intelligence surveillanceleant momentum by advances in technology, the Global War on Terror, and the emphasis on securing the homelandnow threatens to consume protections essential to privacy, which is a necessary component of a healthy democracy. Donohue offers a road map for reining in the national security state's expansive reach, arguing for a judicial re-evaluation of third party doctrine and statutory reform that will force the executive branch to take privacy seriously, even as Congress provides for the collection of intelligence central to U.S. national security. Alarming and penetrating, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of foreign intelligence and privacy in the United States.

Privacy in the Digital Age

Privacy in the Digital Age
Author: Nancy S. Lind
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2015-06-19
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN:

A collection of expert essays examines the privacy rights that have been lost in the post-9/11 era—giving students and others the knowledge they need to take back their constitutional protections. This timely two-volume collection shares information every citizen should have, tackling the erosion of privacy rights engendered by the ability of digital technology to intercept, mine, and store personal data, most often without the knowledge of those being monitored. Examining its subject through the lens of Fourth Amendment rights, the work focuses on technological advances that now gather personal data on an unprecedented scale, whether by monitoring social media, tracking cell phones, or using thermal imaging to watch people's movement. It also examines the possible impact of the widespread gathering of such data by law enforcement and security agencies and by private corporations such as Google. Organized by hot-button topics confronting U.S. citizens in the post-9/11 era, the work reviews the original intent of the Fourth Amendment and then traces the development and erosion of interpretations of that amendment in the 21st century. Topical essays offer a comprehensive treatment and understanding of current Fourth Amendment issues, including those that have been brought before the courts and those relative to the continuing governmental and societal emphasis on security and public safety since the Columbine shootings in 1999 and the events of September 11, 2001.

More Essential Than Ever

More Essential Than Ever
Author: Stephen J. Schulhofer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2012-08-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0195392124

In this book, Stephen Shulhofer explores the changes wrought by the new surveillance regime through the lens of the Fourth Amendment's meaning and history. companies and the state use to scrutinize us, this book makes a powerful case for the importance of the Fourth Amendment in protecting both privacy rights and civil liberties in our surveillance age.

Nothing to Hide

Nothing to Hide
Author: Daniel J. Solove
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2011-05-31
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0300177259

"If you've got nothing to hide," many people say, "you shouldn't worry about government surveillance." Others argue that we must sacrifice privacy for security. But as Daniel J. Solove argues in this important book, these arguments and many others are flawed. They are based on mistaken views about what it means to protect privacy and the costs and benefits of doing so. The debate between privacy and security has been framed incorrectly as a zero-sum game in which we are forced to choose between one value and the other. Why can't we have both? In this concise and accessible book, Solove exposes the fallacies of many pro-security arguments that have skewed law and policy to favor security at the expense of privacy. Protecting privacy isn't fatal to security measures; it merely involves adequate oversight and regulation. Solove traces the history of the privacy-security debate from the Revolution to the present day. He explains how the law protects privacy and examines concerns with new technologies. He then points out the failings of our current system and offers specific remedies. Nothing to Hide makes a powerful and compelling case for reaching a better balance between privacy and security and reveals why doing so is essential to protect our freedom and democracy"--Jacket.

Privacy in the Face of Surveillance

Privacy in the Face of Surveillance
Author: Naval Postgraduate Naval Postgraduate School
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 58
Release: 2015-05-14
Genre:
ISBN: 9781512184402

Facial recognition technology adds a new dimension to government and police surveillance. If these organizations were to employ active surveillance using facial recognition technology, the implication could mean that people appearing in public places no longer have an expectation of privacy in anonymity. Real-time identification using facial recognition surveillance technology is not currently ready for successful employment by law enforcement or government agencies, but the speed with which the technology is being developed means that a constitutional challenge to this new technology will serve as a turning point for the future of Fourth Amendment privacy jurisprudence and shape the future of surveillance in the digital age. This research explores the history and current state of facial recognition technology and examines the impacts of surveillance on privacy expectations. This thesis also reviews existing Fourth Amendment legal protections of privacy through a review of cases relating to government surveillance and privacy. The research effort finds that while facial recognition surveillance does not expressly violate current privacy protections, the courts have historically matured with advancing technology, and future court decisions are likely to decide soon whether the Fourth Amendment leans more toward safeguarding privacy or security when it comes to facial recognition surveillance.

Constitutional Limits on Surveillance

Constitutional Limits on Surveillance
Author: Deven R. Desai
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

Protecting associational freedom is a core, independent yet unappreciated part of the Fourth Amendment. New surveillance techniques threaten that freedom. Surveillance is no longer forward looking. Law enforcement can obtain the same, if not more, information about all of us by looking backward. Forward-looking surveillance has limits. Some limits are practical such as the cost to place a person in a car to follow a suspect. There are also procedural limits, such as the requirement that surveillance relate to criminal activity. In addition, surveillance such as wiretapping and using a GPS tracker often requires a warrant. Warrants involve review by a neutral magistrate. The warrant sets limits on what information may be collected, how it is collected, and how it can be used. The surveillance is also time limited and requires continual justification to a judge, or the surveillance will be shut down. With backward-looking surveillance all of these protections are gone. Law enforcement can now use low-cost technology to track us or need only ask a business for the record of where we went, whom we called, what we read, and more. Revelation of the NSA's vast Prism surveillance project is but the most recent example of law enforcement engaging in this sort of over-reaching surveillance. The FBI has previously deployed similar programs to read mail, obtain lists of books read, demand member lists, and generate watch lists of people to round up in case of national emergency. The efforts vary; the harm is the same. Law enforcement has a perfect picture of our activities and associations regardless of whether they are criminal. With digital records these harms are more acute. Once the data about our activities is gathered, law enforcement may keep that data indefinitely. They have a data hoard. That hoard grows with each new data request. Once created, the hoard can be continually rifled to investigate us but without any oversight. In short, data hoards present new ways to harm associational freedom. Yet, our current understanding of associational freedom is thin. We over-focus on speech and miss the importance of the precursors to speech -- the ability to share, explore, accept, and reject ideas and then choose whether to speak. Recent work has shown, however, that the Constitution protects many activities that are not speech, for example petition and assembly, because the activities enable self-governance and foster the potential for speech. That work has looked to the First Amendment. I show that these concerns also appear in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence and work to protect us from surveillance regardless of whether the acts are speech or whether they are private. Drawing on Fourth Amendment principles, I show how warrant procedures, especially the idea of return, which would require deletion of data after an investigation, must be in place for backward-looking surveillance. This shift will allow law enforcement to access data, but limit the ability to overreach and threaten associational freedom. In short, when new surveillance techniques threaten associational freedom, they must be subject to proper Constitutional limits. This Article explains why those limits are needed, when they must be in place, and how they operate.