Privacy at Risk: The New Government Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment » (New Edition)

Christopher Slobogin is the Edwin A. Heafey, Jr. Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the Stephen C. O’Connell Professor of Law at the University of Florida’s Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

 

 

 

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.

Choice

“The discussion of surveillance techniques is excellent, the legal analysis is sound, and the case for Fourth Amendment reform compelling. Recommended.”—Choice

— D. E. Smith

Preface     ix
Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment     1
Introduction: Surveillance Techniques and the Law     3
A Fourth Amendment Framework     21
Physical Surveillance     49
Peeping Techno-Toms     51
Public Privacy: Surveillance of Public Places and the Right to Anonymity     79
Implementing the Right to Public Anonymity     118
Transaction Surveillance     137
Subpoenas and Privacy     139
Regulating Transaction Surveillance by the Government     168
Conclusion: A Different Fourth Amendment?     205
Notes     219
Index     301