In AP surveillance case, the real scandal is what’s legal

In AP surveillance case, the real scandal is what’s legal

"The key here is a legal principle known as the “third party doctrine,” which says that users don’t have Fourth Amendment rights protecting information they voluntarily turn over to someone else. Courts have said that when you dial a phone number, you are voluntarily providing information to your phone company, which is then free to share it with the government."

"Merely adding more safeguards for journalists’ call records won’t fix the underlying problem. As more and more information about us is held by third parties, the court’s cramped interpretation of the Fourth Amendment leaves ordinary Americans with less and less privacy. People may or may not have expected the numbers they dialed to be private in 1979. But they certainly consider the contents of their Gmail accounts and the locations of the cell phones to be private information today."