The Digital Fourth Amendment: Privacy and Policing in Our Online World

When can the government read your email or monitor your web surfing?When can the police search your phone or copy your computer files?In the United States, the answers come from the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution and its ban on 'unreasonable searches and seizures.' The Digital Fourth Amendment: Privacy and Policing in Our Online World takes the reader inside the legal world of how courts are interpreting the Fourth Amendment in the digital age.Computers, smartphones, and the Internet have transformed criminal investigations, and even a routine crime is likely to lead to digital evidence.But courts are struggling to apply old Fourth Amendment concepts to the new digital world.Mechanically applying old rules from physical investigations doesn't make sense, as it often leads to dramatic expansions of government power just based on coincidences of computer design. Written by a prominent law professor whose scholarship has often been relied on by courts in the field, The Digital Fourt