NCJ Number
219492
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 97 Issue: 2 Dated: Winter 2007 Pages: 531-568
Date Published
2007
Length
38 pages
Annotation
This article offers an analysis of the impact of technology on privacy and fourth amendment jurisprudence.
Abstract
The analysis of the effects of new technologies on privacy indicates that over the past 150 years, new technologies have actually enhanced our privacy and that many of the invasive technologies now employed by the government are simply a response to the enhanced level of privacy. In short, the argument is that invasion technologies are returning the former balance between individual privacy and law enforcement needs. In making this argument, the author begins with an analysis of the ways in which new technologies have enhanced citizen privacy and then moves along to an examination of the effects of new technologies on government surveillance capabilities. Stricter restrictions for certain types of surveillance technologies can force law enforcement agents to use more narrowly tailored technologies that produce less invasive searches. In this analysis, surveillance technologies are divided into three categories: (1) those that allow government agents to do what was previously impossible; (2) those that allow government agents to conduct traditional methods of surveillance more efficiently; and (3) those that the government has developed in response to privacy-enhancing technologies. Current statutory and constitutional law regarding surveillance technologies are reviewed and critically analyzed in light of these categories. The analysis focuses on the balance and/or imbalance created between the two competing goals of fourth amendment jurisprudence--protecting privacy and aiding law enforcement in their goal of protecting the public from harms. Footnotes