techdirt: Every Major Pharmacy Chain Is Giving The Government Warrantless Access To Medical Records

techdirt: Every Major Pharmacy Chain Is Giving The Government Warrantless Access To Medical Records by Tim Cushing:

The Fourth Amendment is rarely a match for the Third Party Doctrine. In recent years, things have gotten a wee bit better thanks to a couple of Supreme Court rulings. But the operative principle still overrides: whatever we share (voluntarily or not) with private companies can often be obtained without a warrant.

That’s why bills have been introduced to add Fourth Amendment protections to cell location data gathered by phone apps. That’s why there’s been a constant struggle in courts and in Congress to reconcile the Third Party Doctrine with the Fourth Amendment, given the vast amount of information and data Americans now share with thousands of third parties.