Chatrie v. United States · ¶104

I might have hoped that the Court would have pursued a more traditional approach to the Fourth Amendment today. But look carefully and you will see hints of it at work even in the Court’s opinion. Why is the Court so protective of Location History data, email, and electronically stored photos and calendars? See ante, at 25–26. Because, it turns out, “a user reasonably understands” all those things “as his own.” Ante, at 25. Put another way, they are his effects. And why does the Court hold Mr. Chatrie’s effects protected by the Fourth Amendment even though a third party stores them? Because, the Court says, those effects remain his “even though [they are] stored on Google’s servers.” Ibid. Put another way, entrusting your effects to a third party for certain agreed purposes doesn’t mean they are no longer yours. While more work may lie ahead to bring coherence to our Fourth Amendment…

slip opinion
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.