Your Right to Privacy Doesn't Disappear When You're in Public
3 hours ago
- The argument that people have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public is too broad; police still face restrictions like needing reasonable suspicion to stop individuals.
- The 1983 Supreme Court case United States v. Knotts ruled that tracking a vehicle on public roads via a radio transmitter did not violate the Fourth Amendment, but was limited in scope.
- The 2012 case United States v. Jones required a warrant for GPS tracking due to physical intrusion on private property and the extensive duration of surveillance.
- In Carpenter v. United States (2018) and Chatrie v. United States (2024), the Court affirmed a reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of physical movements, even in public.
- ALPR surveillance may violate the Fourth Amendment if it reveals intimate details, is cheap and easy to use, and enables retroactive tracking of movements.
- Courts are still determining how the Fourth Amendment applies to ALPRs, but privacy rights do not disappear simply because one is in public.