Quote:
Originally Posted by Difflugia
The US Supreme Court has ruled (and then subsequently affirmed) that there is a constitutional right to privacy, but there are (at least) two problems with specifically applying it here. First, the entity that US citizens have a right to privacy from is the US government and not Adobe. Second, the full breadth of the right to privacy has never been spelled out and lower courts have ruled both ways in different circumstances. |
The problem is there is no *explicit* federal right to privacy as such in the constitution, just a series of specific protections (search and seizure, self incrimination, etc). The court has on occasion found an *implicit* right to privacy (the most prominent case started a culture war that is 40 years running with no end in sight) but it is case to case. Congress has legislated a variety of protections as have the states but again, nothing absolute.
There is no absolute right to privacy to parallel the right of free speech, which is why federal surveillance laws like the Patriot Act can exist. And that is probably why: law and order and security concerns.