Fourth Amendment "effects"

Have you ever thought about the act of typing a sentence, texting or making a call on a cell phone?

Could typing a sentence, texting on a phone, or verbalizing an idea be considered an effect that we should have control of? Are those outcomes we created effects?

i've been thinking of the word effects as used in the Fourth Amendment. Dictionary searches for the meaning of the word “effect” bring up such things as the power to produce results or something that is produced by an agency or cause.

Typing these words has the “effect” of displaying them here for me to do with as i choose. i can delete the sentence i just wrote or i can revise it or i can leave it as is and post it. But the real question is do i really own it once i place it here on my blog or do i only have ownership while it is in my computer at home. What if i e-mailed it to one select person instead of putting it here?

My understanding is that the blog is mine...only i have access to it and only i post articles here. i understand that my posts are no longer private and can be read by anyone in the world but that is a choice i make. i choose to make it accessible, i choose to have it disseminated i choose to make it public.

But what about in my private life? What about all the things i type that only go to one person, that i have no intention of making public? What about those phone calls are they effects or are they no longer private?

We all know none of us can transmit anything without a physical apparatus that we either own or borrow. Our cell phones, computers, i-pads etc. are all items that we have either in our possession or that we pay or sign up to use. We think we own them even if temporarily.

But here is a question...do we own the effects we create on our on line accounts, on our home computers, or on our cell phones? Are they ours or do they belong to some one else? Are they fair game for the government to collect? Are those words i typed into the e-mail an effect that i own? Are the words i speak on my cell phone effects that i own? Is my Amazon account really mine, are my e-mail accounts mine and would they be considered effects every time i used them? Or is everything fair game for anyone wanting to access them. i don't really know....but i would like to know.

The idea of privacy in regards to the 4^th is one that has been debated in our courts many times over the course of our history. Research on my part(limited research) only turned up two rulings regarding privacy outside of work that has anything to do with electronic communication. They are narrow in scope but appear to conflict with each other.

On March 11, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled, in Rehberg v. Paulk, 598 F.3d 1268, that a person does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in an e-mail once any copy of the communication is delivered to a third party.[91]
On December 14, 2010, in United States v. Warshak, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his emails and that the government violated Warshak's Fourth Amendment rights by compelling his internet service provider to turn over his emails without first obtaining a warrant based upon probable cause.[92]

i think most of us expect a certain level of privacy in our e-mail, texting and cell phone use but i wonder how everyone feels about those communications being saved by government agencies? How do you feel about them being read, stored or forwarded by any one other than those you thought they were intended for?

Question...Has privacy become a redundant word in our technologically focused world or should it be resurrected ? Do we want to have anything private any more? Has it gone so far that we accept the mass collection of data by our government as normal?And what does the word effects really mean in the 4th Amendment?

i kind of think of it this way...if you are OK with a physical person standing in your house 24/7 listening to your conversations, watching you, recording you and storing it you are OK with your government collecting all your electronic communications.

What exactly does privacy mean? And when are we in this country going to address it? i put the Fourth below in case you haven't read it recently.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.[1]

See ya next week.