# NSA spying tool XKeyscore provides direct search access to emails, etc. - Constitutional breach?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsa-spying-tool-xkeyscore-provides-direct-search-access-to-emails-etc-constitutional-breach/666518>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 17, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsa-spying-tool-xkeyscore-provides-direct-search-access-to-emails-etc-constitutional-breach/666518 "2013-08-17T23:38:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsa-spying-tool-xkeyscore-provides-direct-search-access-to-emails-etc-constitutional-breach/666518/21 "2013-08-19T17:39:35Z")

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US courts have long held that information or objects to which private third parties have access are not entitled to Fourth Amendment protection. Thus, the contents of your trash, your backyard as viewed from civilian flight altitude, bank account information visible to the bank, where your car travels, and a whole range of things enjoy no Fourth Amendment protection.

It’s a problematic precedent, especially in the modern era of data mining, etc. A better rule would be that there are certain areas that are private _as to the government_, even if they are voluntarily revealed to other private parties. But this rule has been the law for decades. It ain’t new, and it probably ain’t going away.

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**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nsa-spying-tool-xkeyscore-provides-direct-search-access-to-emails-etc-constitutional-breach/666518/22 "2013-08-19T17:39:37Z")

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^^^ that is true of telephone calls because laws were passed making it so.  
Because of prior abuses of the “no rule against it” type.

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