ACLU-CT Releases Comprehensive Privacy Guide

A new guide from the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut explains privacy rights in Connecticut and identifies the gaps and gray areas where those rights are endangered.

From surveillance cameras and wiretapping to drug testing and GPS tracking, Privacy Rights in Connecticut examines legal precedents under the state and federal constitutions, as well as relevant laws, cases and contracts. The intent is to inform people living in Connecticut of their rights, to provide a practical and comprehensive legal reference for attorneys and law enforcement personnel and to guide legislators and policy makers in addressing privacy concerns.

The 130-page guide is based on a 2003 publication from the ACLU of Connecticut, which required substantial updating because of rapid technological change.

“Advancing technologies invade privacy, and the law is not keeping up,” said Sandra Staub, legal director of the ACLU of Connecticut. “We want not only to provide a practical guide to the current state of privacy law but to expose those areas where new and comprehensive protection is needed. If we allow our expectation of privacy to diminish, we might never recover that lost ground.

The guide was researched and written by Robert Schultz, a volunteer attorney with the ACLU of Connecticut, with research support and editing by ACLU of Connecticut staff and interns. Among the findings:

• The courts and lawmakers have yet to set coherent limits on surveillance technology, which has become so refined that it can reveal individual private and personal information, even when the individual is in a public place.
• Many newer forms of communication, including email, need more protection from government and employer monitoring similar to protection that has been given to traditional forms such as telephone calls.
• Although Connecticut law provides some extra privacy in the workplace, the right of workers to privacy in their online postings and off-duty communication remains unsettled under state and federal law.
• The use of strip searches, DNA collection, fingerprinting and drug testing continues to expand without meaningful legal restraint.
• Many of the gaps in current law can be easily addressed, and the guide includes recommended solutions.