Do We Have Any Right to Privacy Outside Our Homes?

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/article/164762/do-we-have-any-right-privacy-outside-our-homes

When attorney and feminist blogger Jill Filipovic landed at Newark Airport in October, her checked bags had been opened and scrutinized by the Transportation Security Administration. Later that evening when she unpacked, she found the requisite TSA slip acknowledging the search inside her suitcase. It’s unsettling enough to find such a note under the best of circumstances. Most of us do not tuck our dainties, toiletries, computer discs and diaries into our luggage with the thought that an unseen stranger will lay hands on it all and maybe pass untoward judgment. If we do think about it, most of us try to rationalize it as a necessary evil; and we minimize it by imagining a mechanistic bureaucrat, a stern and steely sort, having no emotions beyond a gimlet eye for weaponry.

Anonymous searches like these are nevertheless—by their nature—very intimate interactions. Filipovic discovered this firsthand when the Oz-like mask of the imagined automaton was torn off in the most uncomfortable way. She had packed what she later described as a “discreet miniature vibrator” in her suitcase. The vibrator apparently gave the TSA agent quite a chuckle, for he scrawled a handwritten note across the form: “Get your freak on, girl!” Not surprisingly, when the incident went public, a firestorm of protest forced the TSA to take steps to fire the agent. The search of Filipovic’s suitcase was carried out by a real human being—who is no doubt suffering some remorse—not by our imagined soulless machine.

In the case of United States v. Jones, argued in the Supreme Court on November 8 and likely to be decided in the spring, the false comfort of the single-minded, weapons-hunting machine-man comes into more menacing focus. The appeal questions whether the government can place GPS devices on our cars without a warrant or our knowledge. The Justice Department asserts a right to do just that, with Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben arguing that citizens—even Supreme Court justices—have no expectation of privacy outside their homes. As Justice Roberts succinctly queried, “Your argument is you…don’t have to give any reason. It doesn’t have to be limited in any way, right?” Without a flicker of hesitation, Dreeben responded, “That is correct, Mr. Chief Justice.”

[IamK]

1. No

[Demeter]

5. Don't Expect to have "privacy" Inside Your Home, Either

With all the high tech spy gadgetry, that is a thing of the past.

Courts are playing fast and loose with the Bill of Rights, right AND left.

Hell, they are even working on cracking open your thoughts.

[WingDinger]

7. Huh? The four cops with guns in my face at midnite said I had NO right to a warrant.

Later, one cop told me that not allowing them in immediately, made them certain I was guilty. When the one cop rummaging around in my home asked repeatedly WHO I have in my crawlspace, I eventually said Jimmy Hoffa, he said, OK smartass, now I get to search further. I begged that it was a rental and to not destroy the place.

[ixion]

2. Technically, Yes. Practically, No.

Thanks to the ever encroaching corporate police state.

[leveymg]

3. Whomever says no, hasn't read the 4th Amendment about "persons, houses, papers and effects", etc.

A reasonable expectation of privacy is situational and fluid. An electronic device in checked aircraft baggage is reasonable cause for a search. Sorry, Even a dildo. The TSA note was over-the-top bad taste, of course.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. This court and the one before it have no use for individual rights

outside of gun rights and property rights. They have accepted the New Security State unchallenged, from the War on Drugs to the Global War on Terror, the state of emergency and its self justified abolition of individual rights will continue until the regime is overthrown.

[CanonRay]

6. Do we have any right to privacy IN our homes

when the FBI can sneak and peak without a warrant?

[RC]

8. There is a difference between having a Right to Privacy and enjoying that Right.

We have the Right to Privacy both inside our homes and outside, either in our vehicles or just walking down the street. That Right is being denied to us and from the other posts, not enough know we have a Right to Privacy.

The OP question is "Do We Have Any Right to Privacy Outside Our Homes?" The correct answer is "YES!" We are just being deigned that Right.
Too many people do not know their Rights and think because someone passes a law or says there is a law denying that Right, that's OK. No it ain't. No wonder this country is fast becoming a police state.

[xchrom]

9. Big Box Brother: While You Shop the Mall, the Mall Shops You

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/big-box-brother-while-you-shop-the-mall-the-mall-shops-you/249057/

From Black Friday though to the end of the December, two malls in southern California and Richmond, Va., will be following shoppers by tracking their cell phone signals. When somebody walks out of the Gap, into the Starbucks, out through the Nordstrom and on to the Auntie Annes pretzel stand, the mall will be monitoring.

Creepy? Maybe. But the information is anonymous and won't be used to target individual shoppers. Instead, it's part of a quiet information revolution among retailers to figure out how crowds move, where they cluster, and what stores they ignore. Tracking crowds isn't new. Tracking crowds through their cell phones is.

If you've got a problem with malls paying attention to your smart phone, you might want to stay away from the mall for, say, the rest of your life. The future of shopping, according to retail analysts I spoke with for a recent special report, is malls and phones talking to each other.

Paco Underhill, perhaps the world's foremost expert on the "ergonomic" shopping experience, predicted a future where grocery stores do your errands for you. Whole Foods could create a phone app that pings the customer -- "Here's your shopping list!" -- and lets the customer ping the store -- "I'd like to drop by at one tomorrow!" -- so you could drive up to the window, like at a fast food restaurant or pharmaceutical counter, to "fill" your Whole Foods order.

[hobbit709]

10. They want to track my phone. I say "Good Luck"

90% of the time it's not even turned on. If I really don't want to be found, I'll even take the battery out.
Let them track that.

[bemildred]

11. You have the right to privacy, but you do not enjoy it, as the other poster pointed out.

Out government does not obey its own laws, and does not think it ought to either.

[Gregorian]

12. Just a piece of paper.

[treestar]

13. No, how could we?

I remember that case where someone sued a paper for publishing a photo of him acting like an idiot in public. There was found to be no case. You are out in public, don't act like an idiot.