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text messaging and the Fourth Amendment  

Definition

  • Individuals may have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the content of their text messages, and, thus, when a government agent searches through those messages without a warrant, that conduct might violate the Fourth Amendment proscription against “unreasonable searches and seizures.” But there are times when the government does not violate the Fourth Amendment when reading text messages. As with other consensual searches, if an individual voluntarily hands over his or her phone to a police officer, then he or she may have lost his or her reasonable expectation of privacy. [Source: Encyclopedia of the Fourth Amendment; Text Messaging and the Fourth Amendment]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/text_messaging_and_the_Fourth_Amendment

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