It's Time to Drop the 'Expectation of Privacy' Test

It's Time to Drop the 'Expectation of Privacy' Test dated 03.26.09, Commentary by Bruce Schneier

There are several links in the article where the legal scholars point out a taxonomy of privacy, that search warrants should be written against individuals and not internet accounts (in terms of content vs non-content) with regard to the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution, and then reinterpreting the Constitution in terms of security.

Schneier states his issues with all of these points-of-view.

An excellent article.

-- Tom

 

Excellent indeed.
Thank you.

 

Excellent read. I especially like the summing up with his problem with the whole thing:

"Reframing privacy in terms of security still results in a balancing of competing rights. I'd rather take the approach of stating the -- obvious to me -- individual and societal value of privacy, and giving privacy its rightful place as a fundamental human right."

"The trick here is to realize that a normative definition of the expectation of privacy doesn't need to depend on threats or technology, but rather on what we -- as society -- decide it should be. Sure, today's technology make it easier than ever to violate privacy. But it doesn't necessarily follow that we have to violate privacy. Today's guns make it easier than ever to shoot virtually anyone for any reason. That doesn't mean our laws have to change."