Welcome to this module on the legal system that protects privacy in the United States. First, we are going to see the goals again, and the most important one for this module and this lecture is to learn about the background of privacy protection as is in the legal system. Okay. The system of protection for privacy is a dual system in the United States. First, there's the Constitutional one and the second is the number of specialized laws protecting consumers and users in telecommunications and internet service provision. The Fourth Amendment is what is usually depicted or for short, my home is my castle. So that's what it is protecting and from a constitutional point of view, you have seen the text a number of times already so I hope you can read it for yourself. What is important is that the Fourth Amendment sets in the text itself, thresholds for a right to privacy namely: that to intrude on your privacy, on your personal belongings in your house, there needs to be a probable cause. When there is a probable cause, then the police can go to a judge and ask for a warrant. So if there is a probable cause and there is a warrant, then legally a search or seizure can be done according to the Fourth Amendment. Going back a bit in time in 1928, there was a decision that needed to be taken in Olmstead versus the United States. What is important, and that's what I would like to show to you here, because the case itself will be referenced in the next module, that the Justice Brandeis at that moment he was justice, he was one of the important Supreme Court justices, but he wrote an opinion on what is the exact text of amendment for how to read this, and he made a dissenting opinion. What he said and what is still important is that the right to be let alone is what most, let's say, is being grappled by the Fourth Amendment. Because what does the Fourth Amendment seek? It seeks to find out when and under what conditions a search is reasonable. Then to be able to do that, you need to balance two interests namely: on the one hand, an individual has his Fourth Amendment rights and on the other hand, the government wants to intrude on that, and they have legitimate interests and when those legitimate interests that are there under that balance, it can be used to intrude into an individual's Fourth Amendment rights. Thank you for watching this lecture, and the next lecture will deal with a bit more in detail what the Constitution means for protecting your privacy.
