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Privacy Law: Home

This guide is meant to provide research materials related to privacy law and it's many sub-topics such as, the right to privacy and 4th amendment case-law.

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Introduction

Privacy law refers to the laws and regulations affecting an individual's personal information and the extent to which that information is usable or discoverable by government or business entitites.

The notion that the Constitution guarantees a right to privacy is a relatively recent and contentious notion. In Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965) Justice Black first articulated that a fundamental right to privacy may be found in the "penumbras" and "emanations" of several constitutional provisions.

The debate on the limits and protections of the right to privacy has been forced to modernize with the advent of the internet and social networking.  Today, privacy law is far more intertwined with the law of electronic media than it is with the law of search and seizure.

Organizations

Electronic Privacy Information Center
EPIC is a public interest research center founded in 1994 with a mission to "focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values."

Privacy International
Privacy International is a non-profit organization based out of the United Kingdom.  Their mission is "defend the right to privacy across the world, and to fight surveillance and other intrusions into private life by governments and corporations."

American Civil Liberties Union
The ACLU is a non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." The ACLU directs its efforts towards litigation, lobbying, and community outreach.