A Legal Guide to PRIVACY AND DATA SECURITY 2024

LEGAL BASIS FOR A RIGHT TO PRIVACY

Sources of privacy law include constitutional law, tort law, contract law, federal and state laws and regulations, and foreign laws. Constitutional. There is no explicit reference to privacy as a right in the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States has, however, held in several cases that there exists a right to privacy or at least a “reasonable expectation of privacy” as implied in the First, Third, Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth amendments. [See Olmstead v. United States , 277 U.S. 438 (1928), Kat z v. United States , 389 U.S. 347 (1967), Griswold v. Connecticut , 381 U.S. 479 (1965), Roe v. Wade , 410 U.S. 113 (1973), Whalen v. Roe , 429 U.S. 589 (1977)]. In United States v. Jones , 132 S. Ct. 945 (2012), the installation of a GPS device by law enforcement in a car without a warrant was found to constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment because it represented a trespass on a person’s property. In concurring opinions, it was noted that the use of long term surveillance violates a “reasonable expectation of privacy.” This was followed by Riley v. California , 573 U.S. (2014), where the Supreme Court ruled that the contents of mobile devices are protected by the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement. The Supreme Court issued its landmark privacy decision in Carpenter v. United States , 138 S. Ct. 2206 (2018) ruling that the government must get a warrant before accessing a person’s sensitive cellphone location data. The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization landmark decision overruling Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey has profound implications for privacy and data protection regarding abortion.

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