Has Katz Become Quaint? Use of Big Data to Outflank the Fourth Amendment

Abstract

Properly applied, big data analytics can make "non-content" record data more illuminating to the analyst than content, heightening concerns over reduced Fourth Amendment protections of non-content data. Further, current interpretations of the third-party doctrine means that data collected by third party providers can be obtained by the government without dealing with Fourth Amendment protections. This essay argues that the nexus of ubiquitous computing and big data analytics has rendered existing standards of Fourth Amendment protection inadequate, and calls for a reexamination of these doctrines.