Posts about the Fourth Amendment by Professor Daniel J. Solove for his blog at TeachPrivacy, a privacy awareness and security training company.
Originally posted on Substack This year, in Chatrie v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether geofence warrants are valid under the Fourth Amendment. The geofence warrant at issue in the case was one that allowed the government to obtain account data from Google of hundreds of millions of users. It’s the equivalent to […]
It’s gratifying to see a Chronicle of Higher Education editor recall a piece I wrote there 15 years ago — though I wish the remembrance was for less ominous reason. He concludes: “It appears that the moment he warned us about has arrived.” My Chronicle of Higher Ed piece is based on my article, “I’ve […]
I’m very excited to share with you the final published version of my article, Privacy in Authoritarian Times: Surveillance Capitalism and Government Surveillance, 67 Boston College Law Review 51 (2026). You can download the article for free on SSRN.
I just published an op-ed in the Boston Globe entitled “States can fight authoritarianism by shoring up privacy laws.” Boston Globe (Dec. 23, 2024). It’s paywalled, but I’m allowed to repost it, so here it is below. I’m working on a law review article on this topic, and I hope to have a draft in the […]
It is an understatement to say that a lot has happened in privacy law during the past decade. Here is my list of the most notable developments. NOTE: I am giving a particular emphasis to what I find to be notable from a United States perspective. What is notable privacy law depends upon where one […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has been notoriously slow to tackle new technology. In 2002, Blackberry launched its first smart phone. On June 29, 2007, Steve Jobs announced the launch of the original Apple iPhone. But it took the Supreme Court until 2014 to decide a case involving the Fourth Amendment and smart phones – Riley […]
The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued a decision in Carpenter v. United States, an important Fourth Amendment case that was eagerly awaited by many. The decision was widely cheered as a breakthrough in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence — hailed as a “landmark privacy case” and a “major victory for digital privacy [link no longer available].” In the NY […]
The U.S. Supreme Court will be hearing arguments this week in Carpenter v. United States, which is one of the most important Fourth Amendment cases before the Court. The case involves whether the Third Party Doctrine will remain viable. If so, the Fourth Amendment will fade into obsolescence in today’s digital age. In this post, […]
In response to government surveillance or massive data gathering, many people say that there’s nothing to worry about. “I’ve got nothing to hide,” they declare. “The only people who should worry are those who are doing something immoral or illegal.” The nothing-to-hide argument is ubiquitous. This is why I wrote an essay about it 10 […]