A PROPOSAL FOR A LAW TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT DIGITAL PRIVACY FOR AMERICAN CITIZEN
Open Access
- Author:
- Al Rawi, Ahmed
- Graduate Program:
- Media Studies
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- February 17, 2021
- Committee Members:
- BENJAMIN W. CRAMER, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
FORD RISLEY, Committee Member
PATRICK PARSONS, Committee Member
Anthony Olorunnisola, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Surveillance
Privacy
Communications Law and Policy
Government Security Agencies - Abstract:
- The problem of third parties, such as telecommunications and digital media companies, sharing people’s private data with government agencies like the National Security Agency (NSA), has become more common in the Internet era. Private data like Internet search histories, contact lists, phone and video calls, pictures, health information, and so on are shared with the government by third parties. Such conduct leads to people’s private data being unsecured and accessible to government security agencies. Thus, a real problem exists when third-party companies share people’s private data. In addition, third parties are sharing people’s private data with the government without asking for a warrant. Such conduct has resulted in a change in the application of the Fourth Amendment and the search and seizure process. Hence, lawmakers are not sure how to deal with third parties when applying the Fourth Amendment to solve privacy issues. Therefore, this thesis posits the problem of data privacy and the Third-Party Doctrine on the Fourth Amendment to the public, as well as encouraging the federal lawmakers to establish a law to stop the sharing of people’s private data. Furthermore, this thesis proposes a new law called the U.S. Digital Privacy Protection Act that aims to solve the data privacy issue in the United States.