Cameron Russell, adjunct professor and executive director of the Fordham Center on Law and Information Policy (CLIP), was quoted in a San Francisco Chronicle article about the privacy implications of smart devices.
Although the Constitution does not explicitly spell out a right to privacy, consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy inside their home thanks to laws based on the Fourth Amendment’s outlawing of unlawful search and seizure, as well as federal and state electronic recording and wiretap statutes.
But legal experts say there might be gray areas in the law when it comes to emerging technologies, such as video game consoles with cameras that can recognize faces or smart speakers that record voices.
“Is there a reasonable expectation of privacy when there are devices that are built on hearing you and recording what it hears?” said Fordham Law School Professor N. Cameron Russell, executive director of the university’s Center on Law and Information Policy.