Search and seizure in the cloud

Also in the June 2009 issue of the Minnesota Law Review is a Note on applying the Fourth Amendment to privacy in the cloud, where data is stored on distant servers. "With individuals and entities increasingly using the cloud to conduct business and store data, it is important to have a clear framework within which the government may conduct a search that meets constitutional requirements." The author proposes that courts should:

• Recognize society's reasonable expectation of privacy in the cloud as the court did with the telephone in Katz
• Adopt the virtual-container theory to standardize privacy appraisals in the cloud, and recognize virtual-concealment efforts
• Treat cloud service providers as virtual landlords and apply the third-party doctrine narrowly to cloud content

Note, Defogging the Cloud: Applying Fourth Amendment Principles to Evolving Privacy Expectations in Cloud Computing (pdf, 35pp/236kB), Minnesota Law Review, June 2009