Jennifer Granick writes on Wired:
My laptop computer was purchased by Stanford, but my whole life is stored on it. I have e-mail dating back several years, my address book with the names of everyone I know, notes and musings for various work and personal projects, financial records, passwords to my blog, my web mail, project and information management data for various organizations I belong to, photos of my niece and nephew and my pets.
In short, my computer is my most private possession. I have other things that are more dear, but no one item could tell you more about me than this machine.
Yet, a rash of recent court decisions says the Constitution may not be enough to protect my laptop from arbitrary, suspicionless and warrantless examination by the police.
[…]
I hope for the best, as I do in United States v. Ziegler, the case that found private employees have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their workplace computers. Defense attorneys have asked for a rehearing, and the court may do better next time.
Ziegler is important, because if employees have no protected privacy rights, then the government can enter a private workplace, without cause, without a warrant, with or without the employer’s consent and search employee computers. The business might try to sue, but the employee would not have the right either to challenge the government’s actions in court, or to suppress any discovered evidence.
I have one word for you: encryption. And if you’re living in a country that doesn’t allow you to use encryption unless the government holds the key, I’ve got another word: move.
Here’s the link, found originally on Slashdot.
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