A win for privacy

The unanimous decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to expand right to privacy protections to cell phones is an important victory for individuals in the face of fast changing technologies.

The ruling is also a healthy defense of individual guarantees, at a time when they have been eroded in the name of public safety and fighting the threat of terrorism.

Until yesterday, the way that the authorities treated cell phones was very similar to a wallet with photos, which could be inspected without major problems and without needing a search warrant.

That is no longer the case.

The high court, in a decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, explained that for many Americans, these phones hold “the privacies of life.” The decision clearly establishes that the fact that a phone holds a vast amount of private information does not mean that this information is no longer constitutionally protected.

Regarding the public safety argument, Roberts was direct, adding: “Privacy comes at a cost.” This means that if the police want access to a cell phone, they need a warrant, just like they would to search a place.

This is a natural extension of the Fourth Amendment. The amount of personal information accumulated on the phone and on the cloud can be a lot more than what is at home. Roberts recognized that cell phones are “not just another technological convenience,” but are so much more than that at this time. Rather than being a communication vehicle, cell phones store information and as such deserve constitutional protections. The decision finally unifies the rules that authorities must follow among a tangle of differing state court decisions.

This is a victory for all Americans. It is refreshing, after so many laws and court decisions that restrict the privacy of individuals—in the name of safety—that the healthy principle that it is better for a criminal to go free than for all of us to be treated like criminals is being recognized once again.