EFF: Smith v. Maryland Turns 35, But Its Health Is Declining

EFF: Smith v. Maryland Turns 35, But Its Health Is Declining

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1979 decision of Smith v. Maryland turned 35 years old last week. Since it was decided, Smith has stood for the idea that people have no expectation of privacy in information they expose to others. Labeled the third party ‘doctrine’ (even by EFF itself), Smith has come up over and over in the debates surrounding electronic surveillance and NSA spying. But the idea that information exposed to others is no longer private has been oversold. Millions of Americans expect all sorts of things exposed to third parties remain private under state law. And as technology advances and the information we give to ISPs and telcos becomes more and more revealing, even federal courts are beginning to rethink whether Smith is the absolute rule the government claims it should be.