Miguel Afonso Caetano<p>"We are in a constant dialogue with Internet search engines, ranging from the mundane to the confessional. We ask search engines everything: What movies are playing (and which are worth seeing)? Where’s the nearest clinic (and how do I get there)? Who’s running in the sheriff’s race (and what are their views)? These online queries can give insight into our private details and innermost thoughts, but police increasingly access them without adhering to longstanding limits on government investigative power.</p><p>A Virginia appeals court is poised to review such a request in a case called Commonwealth v. Clements. In Clements, police sought evidence under a “reverse-keyword warrant,” a novel court order that compels search engines like Google to hand over information about every person who has looked up a word or phrase online. While the trial judge correctly recognized the privacy interest in our Internet queries, he overlooked the other wide-ranging harms that keyword warrants enable and upheld the search.</p><p>But as EFF and the ACLU explained in our amicus brief on appeal, reverse keyword warrants simply cannot be conducted in a lawful way. They invert privacy protections, threaten free speech and inquiry, and fundamentally conflict with the principles underlying the Fourth Amendment and its analog in the Virginia Constitution. The court of appeals now has a chance to say so and protect the rights of Internet users well beyond state lines."</p><p><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/eff-tells-virginia-court-constitutional-privacy-protections-forbid-cops-finding" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/eff-</span><span class="invisible">tells-virginia-court-constitutional-privacy-protections-forbid-cops-finding</span></a></p><p><a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/USA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>USA</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Virginia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Virginia</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Privacy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Privacy</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/KeywordWarrant" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>KeywordWarrant</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/SearchEngines" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SearchEngines</span></a></p>