Social Media and Our Misconceptions of the Realities

Abstract

This article will review the current laws of the expectations of privacy under the two-pronged Katz test, and more specifically other cases that the courts have tried to interpret the test as applicable to social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and e-mail. Since there seems to be “no light at the end of the tunnel” with any uniform decision within the courts on the Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure when there is a reasonable expectation of privacy with social media. This reasonable expectation standard is developed by the users themselves who will allow their rights to be infringed upon for the approval to access sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Keywords: Facebook, Twitter, E-mail, Instagram, Fourth Amendment, Social Media, Katz Test