Are There Fourth Amendment Rights in Google Search Terms?

Orin Kerr · 16 Dec 2025

Orin Kerr did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Whether the Fourth Amendment protects the terms you type into a search engine is a genuinely close question.

Their wordsDoctrinally, either answer is at least plausible; even under my own take of what Carpenter means, it's not an easy call.
Our reading
A company's terms of service cannot enlarge or shrink your constitutional privacy rights in either direction.

Their wordsAs I have argued here, I don't think TOS alter Fourth Amendment rights—up or down.

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