Law enforcement can’t open and view files maintained in a private Google Drive account without first obtaining a warrant, the Fourth Circuit said, entering a circuit split over the Fourth Amendment implications of Google’s hash-matching technology.
The technology enables Google to detect when users upload child sex abuse materials and works by converting images and videos into unique digital fingerprints, or hashes, that are compared to previously identified materials.
“Just as Americans enjoy a reasonable expectation of privacy in files maintained in a filing cabinet in the physical world, so too, Americans enjoy a reasonable expectation of privacy in the ...