What Fourth Amendment issues are most salient to the investigation of computer crime?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Fourth Amendment has always been the cornerstone of police procedure and activity. The exclusionary rule is predicated largely on police searches and seizures and considerations of the "expectation of privacy."In computer forensic investigations, certain elements of the Amendment have not been fully adjudicated by the Court, and the application by lower courts has proved to be anything but consistent. As with warrants that are unrelated totechnology, computer searches are subject to judicial scrutiny of particularity, overbreadth, and third-party origination. In addition, the admissibility of evidence collected in the absence of a warrant is contingent upon a complete demonstration of satisfaction to traditional exceptions. The vast and spatially ambiguous nature of the World Wide Web has complicated jurisdictional concerns and muddied the waters of government sovereignty and the lack of physicality has proved problematic to investigators in obtaining warrants for computer crime. At the same time, the possibility exists that evidence is miniscule or carefully hidden inside mountains of material. Unfortunately, the circuit courts have been divided on the level of specificity required in searches of computer files.