Why My Fourth Amendment Might Be Protected Even if Yours is Not

-- By AhiranisCastillo - 05 Mar 2024

Section I

The Fourth Amendment serves to protect the rights of individuals against unreasonable searches and seizures conducted by government authorities. It reads, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

In essence, this amendment safeguards the privacy and security of individuals by requiring that searches and seizures by the government be conducted under specific conditions. These conditions include obtaining a warrant from a judge, supported by probable cause, which particularly describes the place to be searched and the items or individuals to be seized. An individual, then, has a right to their own privacy and any information that the government extracts about that individual must follow protocol.

The digital age thus presents an entirely new realm of questions for our right to privacy. We live in an age where people freely and obliviously hand over personal information to their phones and devices. That information is then passed around to countless third parties that use it to generate data and sell ads. The government may also use this data in ways that citizens are not explicitly consenting to.

Here's the thing – my phone knows more about myself than I do. It’s not uncommon for me to receive a notification that my balance is off, that I haven’t consumed enough water in a day, or even that I am set to ovulate in a few days. I feed information to my phone and it digests me, studies me, predicts me – and yes, changes me.

But when I think about this relative to the Fourth Amendment, I focus on one word: secure. I have the right to be secure in my person, house, papers, etc. And while it sometimes can feel like I am living in a real-life adaptation of 1984, and I do believe there needs to be more transparency about what happens with our data, I don’t feel that I am not secure.

If anything, some of what other people would consider invasive and personal makes me feel more secure. Where does that leave me?

It means one of two things must be true: either there is something more of a case-by-case basis of whether people feel that their Fourth Amendment right has been trespassed on, or the brain-altering power of technology has worked on me, and my rights are being violated regardless of my opinion.

Still, I believe this is a complicated question on the language of the Fourth Amendment, particularly the phrase be secure and a matter of what it means in this expansive technological era.

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