[tor-talk] US Federal Court: The Fourth Amendment Does Not Protect Your Home Computer

[Allen]

On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 2:19 AM, grarpamp <grarpamp at gmail.com> wrote:

> https://www.eff.org/files/2016/06/23/matish_suppression_edva.pdf
>
> <https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/06/23/2040255/federal-court-the-fourth-amendment-does-not-protect-your-home-computer>


The judge's logic is pretty amusing and shocking at the same time:
basically, because of all the malware and software vulnerabilities in the
world, as soon as you connect your computer to the internet, you have no
reasonable expectation of privacy because your computer is probably going
to be hacked by someone, and if it just happens to be the FBI who hacks
your computer, you should have expected that.


>
> https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/06/23/2040255/federal-court-the-fourth-amendment-does-not-protect-your-home-computer
>
> The EFF reports that a federal court in Virginia today ruled that a
> criminal defendant has no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in his
> personal computer (PDF), located inside his home. The court says the
> federal government does not need a warrant to hack into an
> individual's computer. EFF reports: "The implications for the
> decision, if upheld, are staggering: law enforcement would be free to
> remotely search and seize information from your computer, without a
> warrant, without probable cause, or without any suspicion at all. To
> say the least, the decision is bad news for privacy. But it's also
> incorrect as a matter of law, and we expect there is little chance it
> would hold up on appeal. (It also was not the central component of the
> judge's decision, which also diminishes the likelihood that it will
> become reliable precedent.) But the decision underscores a broader
> trend in these cases: courts across the country, faced with unfamiliar
> technology and unsympathetic defendants, are issuing decisions that
> threaten everyone's rights.
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