Boundary Conditions for the Digital Forensic Use of Electronic Evidence and The Need for Forensic Counter-Analysis

Network and Digital Forensics provide information about electronic activity in new, sometimes unprecedented forms. These new forms offer new, powerful tactical tools for investigations of electronic malfeasance when incorporated under traditional legal regulation of state power, particular that of Fourth Amendment limitations on police searches and seizures under the U.S. Constitution. These tactical tools raise issues of public policy and privacy that may raise concerns about the proper police oversight of civil society. How those issues are resolved will define personal privacy, autonomy and dignity in the 21st digital century.