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Bill of Rights
The fourth amendment establishes: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." -
Olmstead v United States
This act declared that wiretaps placed by federal officers to get evidence, even with judicial review, is permissible. -
Katz v. United States
Charles Katz was a man who used a phone booth to transmit illegal gambling wagers. He did not know he was being wiretapped until he was convicted, to which he appealed the case saying his Fourth Amendment right were being impeded upon. Katz won at the Supreme Court level as they declared he had a right to privacy in his conversations. -
Foreign Surveillance Act
The Foreign Surveillance Act of 1978, and proposed on May 28, 1977 allowed for warrantless wiretapping on suspects of foreign identity in the United States. -
Bush Elected
George W. Bush is elected president of the United States -
9/11
A terrorist attack killing 3,000 people and brings down the Twin Towers occurs early morning in New York. -
The Patriot Act
The passing of the Patriot Act allowed for further surveillance of phones, facilitated communication between, allowed investigators to follow a potential terrorist before handing over a warrant, increased terrorist penalties -
Homeland Security Act
The Homeland Security Act provides the secretary of the US that Department of Homeland Security to control investigations that require access to private information. This can be interpeted as this authority being able to look over someone's PHI with express authorization. -
The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act
This act expanded FBI surveillance powers to people not connected to foreign power terrorism. -
PRISM
The Guardian and Washington Post reveal (after a disclosure by Edward Snowden) that a government program by the name of PRISM has been gathering data from millions of people through Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Apple, and AOL. -
Reform
President Obama announced reform to the country's surveillance system making it so the NSA would stop spying on allied nations, require court-order to get phone data outside of emergencies, and an eventual end to huge amount of data collected by the government -
USA Freedom Act
This act brings an end to NSA's bulk collection of phone records but reinstates three policies in the Patriot Act: moving wiretaps on terrorist suspects who change electronics, surveillance of "lone wolf" suspects who are not with a terrorist organization, and the need of court orders to glean business records.
