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86 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. Arguendo 1 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/gwargu86 and id is 1 raw text is: NOTE Always On, Always Listening: Navigating Fourth Amendment Rights in a Smart Home Allegra Bianchini* ABSTRACT What do you say in your home when you think no one is listening? Have you ever contemplated that someone might be listening? What would you do if a recorded log of what you say and do behind closed doors could be used against you? With the recent rise of digital assistant devices, often referred to as always on, always listening devices, this circumstance is a tangible reality. Given the state of digital data protection, the information collected by these devices and stored on service provider clouds remains ambiguously protected and in some cases subject to warrantless government searches. This Note proposes that, given the intimate nature of this data and the rationale supporting recent Supreme Court decisions concerning the Fourth Amendment, it should be afforded a higher level of protection than it currently receives under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA). Instead, it should be treated as a physical aspect of a user's home, consistent with the Supreme Court's analysis in Kyllo v. United States. Bolstered by the reasoning used by the Supreme Court, this Note proposes that Congress amend the ECPA to provide such protection for digital information beyond just communications in order to maintain the high level of privacy in one's home that has been valued by the United States since the time of its founders. INTRODUCTION On November 22, 2015, Victor Parris Collins was found dead in a patio hot tub at the home of James Andrew Bates in Bentonville, * J.D., expected May 2018, The George Washington University Law School; B.A., 2014, Colgate University. March 2018 Vol. 86 1

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