Technology Pushes Established Laws
If you have ever planned a vacation in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia or literally anywhere else on Earth, you can plot your trip with the aid of the popular Internet Web engine, Google.
One of its links, Google Maps, will allow anyone to enter an address and with one or two simple maneuvers view an image of that address. While the use of Google can be entertaining and educational as a tool to explore foreign sites, there is an increasing concern regarding privacy rights when neighborhoods and specific homes are depicted.
The U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a specific right of privacy, although the Supreme Court has found that there are "zones of privacy" within the 14th Amendment. However, these privacy rights are protected against certain governmental action. The Supreme Court has decided many cases affecting the rights of individuals and media to engage in speech, and Google publishing photographs of private homes probably would be considered protected speech.
Perhaps a person is engaging in illegal activity on his or her private property, and such activity might be depicted on Google Maps. The courts have previously upheld a search warrant against a media outlet on a judge's finding that the newspaper possessed photographs revealing the identity of individuals suspected of breaking the law. The court held that the critical element in a search in judicial proceedings is not that the property owner is suspected of crime, but that there is reason to believe that the things to be searched for are located on the property to which entrance is sought.
Also, the Tennessee Supreme Court has upheld a search warrant as a result of a law enforcement helicopter pilot who observed, from the air, marijuana growing on private property. The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures of private property by the government; however, the court made a distinction between open fields and the grounds of a home, which enjoy a different type of protection.
The use of computers, the Internet and most other means of technology and communication, as well as the expanded definitions of speech and commerce, could not have possibly been envisioned by the framers of the Constitution, and the privacy interests of the individuals have expanded equally as fast since the Constitution was drafted. In addition to Google, there are dozens of other Internet sites that publish not only photographs of private homes, but also the appraised value, acreage, purchase price and date, and other "private" information. Many of these sites are used by registers of deeds across the country.
In assessing whether Google Maps' publication of photographs of homes constitutes an invasion of privacy, the clear answer is a definitive ... it depends.
News Hawk: User: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: Tennessean
Copyright: 2008 The Tennessean
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