Privacy at Risk

The New Government Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment

Cloth $40.00 ISBN: 9780226762838 Published November 2007

E-book $7.00 to $32.00 About E-books ISBN: 9780226762944 Published September 2008

Without our consent and often without our knowledge, the government can constantly monitor many of our daily activities, using closed circuit TV, global positioning systems, and a wide array of other sophisticated technologies. With just a few keystrokes, records containing our financial information, phone and e-mail logs, and sometimes even our medical histories can be readily accessed by law enforcement officials. As Christopher Slobogin explains in Privacy at Risk, these intrusive acts of surveillance are subject to very little regulation.

Applying the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures, Slobogin argues that courts should prod legislatures into enacting more meaningful protection against government overreaching. In setting forth a comprehensive framework meant to preserve rights guaranteed by the Constitution without compromising the government’s ability to investigate criminal acts, Slobogin offers a balanced regulatory regime that should intrigue everyone concerned about privacy rights in the digital age.

Review Quotes
Contents

“Privacy at Risk is a thoughtful examination of how new surveillance technologies are allowing the government to subvert the basic constitutional principles underpinning the Fourth Amendment. It is a very fine book—one that is timely, interesting, and of essential importance in light of current events. With clarity and depth, Slobogin sets forth a comprehensive and sophisticated vision for how to reinvigorate the Fourth Amendment. His book is a must-read for anybody concerned about establishing an appropriate balance between government surveillance and privacy.”—Daniel J. Solove, George Washington University Law School

“This book could not be more timely. In the years since 9/11, the growing power and incentive of the government to collect information about its citizens have posed new and increasingly difficult questions. Scholars and students of these questions, as well as legislators and law enforcement officials, will find in this book both a wide-ranging analysis of the implications of technological developments for the scope of personal privacy and an enormously helpful conceptual framework for regulating the government's surveillance power under the Constitution. Trenchant, comprehensive, and thought-provoking, Privacy at Risk manages to be both fair-minded and provocative—a must-read for all concerned with maintaining the delicate balance between privacy and security (which is to say, for everyone).”—Carol Steiker, Harvard Law School

“As one of the leading scholars of the Fourth Amendment, Christopher Slobogin speaks with the necessary authority to persuade us about the limits of our established constitutional doctrines in addressing modern technological surveillance. In this awesomely comprehensive and unfailingly sane, balanced, and thoughtful book, Slobogin captures better than anyone else the scope and variety of the ‘virtual searches’ that government now regularly performs on all of us. I now can't imagine teaching criminal procedure without relying on this book, and I'm not sure a student could adequately learn the subject without doing so.”—Robert Weisberg, Stanford Law School

“The discussion of surveillance techniques is excellent, the legal analysis is sound, and the case for Fourth Amendment reform compelling. Recommended.”—Choice

"Slobogin thoroughly and convincingly analyzes the legal evidence and suggests methods for legislatures to pass better protections for individuals, while at the same time ensuring effective law enforcement. His work is a vital contribution to current discussions that affect not only the legal field, but political and cultural arenas as well."

Contents

Preface

I. Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment

Chapter 1. Introduction: Surveillance Techniques and the Law

Chapter 2. A Fourth Amendment Framework

II. Physical Surveillance

Chapter 3. Peeping Techno-Toms

Chapter 4. Public Privacy: Surveillance of Public Places and the Right to Anonymity

Chapter 5. Implementing the Right to Public Anonymity

III. Transaction Surveillance

     Chapter 6. Subpoenas and Privacy

     Chapter 7. Regulating Transaction Surveillance by the Government

     Chapter 8. Conclusion: A Different Fourth Amendment?

Notes

Index

For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu

Criminology

Law and Legal Studies: General Legal Studies | Law and Society | Legal Thought | The Constitution and the Courts

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