3 ms·

This is an interesting point. What about a safe deposit box at a bank, can the government search it without a warrant?

• mpyne 13y ago
  You're mixing things up a bit. The government can't search things without a warrant where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. This applies to even things like DHL packages, the government can't tell the DHL delivery guy to hand over a package to them. On the other hand, it's not a privacy violation for the DHL guy to voluntarily turn over material to the government and the government to use that as evidence against you. Think of the stereotypical "guy at the photo lab" who notices that someone dropped off child porn to be developed, you (sadly) used to see that in the news yearly, and no one thought anything of that being turned over to the government. In some cases third-party services have privacy protections added by law. E.g. the cellular communications interception thing, it used to be very easy indeed to intercept a cell phone call just by sticking up an antenna. In 1994 the law was changed to make it illegal to intercept those calls in most scenarios, and require search warrants even for that "public transmission" of communications (but the law also required cell phone companies to make it possible to wiretap, the "CALEA" provisions). Given how strictly regulated banks are I would be very surprised if there are not similar laws providing some semblance of legal protection to the contents of safe deposit boxes, but I'm not sure and don't have time to Google it.