GPS Tracking Technology: The Case for Revisiting Knotts and Shifting the Supreme Court's Theory of the Public Space Under the Fourth Amendment

Abstract

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom from government intrusion into individual privacy. More than two hundred years after the time of the Framers, however, the government possesses technologies, like GPS tracking, that allow law enforcement to obtain ever-greater amounts of detail about individuals without ever setting foot inside the home—the area where Fourth Amendment protections are highest. Despite the dangers GPS tracking and other technologies present to individual privacy, the U.S. Supreme Court's Fourth Amendment jurisprudence frequently fails to acknowledge any semblance of privacy in the public sphere. This Note argues that rather than defining Fourth Amendment privacy based on purely physical boundaries, a proper analysis would protect those features of society that provide privacy. By recognizing that features other than physical boundaries can generate privacy, this analysis would ensure the Fourth Amendment continues to preserve individual privacy even in the face of sophisticated new technologies.