Digital Rights
Overturning Roe v. Wade Also Affected Digital Privacy
For nearly half a century, the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade stood as a landmark of American law. It established that a person's…
Digital Rights
Digital rights are the protections people have when they communicate, work, and live online. They cover who can see personal information, how data is kept safe, and how free people are to use the internet. Congress, federal agencies, states, courts, and private companies all shape them.
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October 9last updated
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Latest in Digital Rights
Digital Communications Privacy
Yes, Your Boss Can Read Your Slack Messages
In Slack’s Messages tab, a private channel’s messages are visible only to people invited to it. That keeps coworkers out, but not necessarily the employer. The…
Privacy and Data Protection
Can DNA Testing Companies Sell Your Genetic Data?
Whether a DNA testing company can sell or share genetic data, and what a customer can later delete or withdraw, depends on what the customer agreed…
Privacy and Protection From Searches
Government Surveillance vs. Personal Privacy
The United States faces a tension between the government's duty to "provide for the common defense" and citizens' right "to be secure in their persons, houses,…
Topics in Digital Rights
Privacy, access, and security
Protections for messages, phones, and online accounts are covered in Digital Communications Privacy. Online speech and access are covered in Internet Freedom, and safeguarding personal data is covered in Data Breaches and Identity Theft Protection.
All Articles on Digital Rights
Digital Privacy and the Ninth Amendment: Does the Constitution Protect Your Online Life?
Every click, search query, and location ping from our smartphones creates a digital trail. Our most private conversations, financial records, health concerns, and daily…
Who Can Read Your DMs? Your Data, the Cloud, and Government Access
When you send a private message on a social media app, an email, or a workplace chat platform, there's a natural expectation of privacy.…
Is Your Smartphone an Open Book for Police?
The smartphone in your pocket is an unprecedented vault of personal information, a digital extension of yourself that holds everything from intimate conversations and…
Why Facebook Can Ban You: Free Speech Rights vs Private Companies
You post a political opinion on Facebook. Hours later, a notification appears: your content has been removed. Your account is restricted. In some cases,…
America’s Digital Divide: The People Left Behind
Nearly every aspect of American life now requires internet access. Yet millions of Americans still lack reliable broadband service, creating a persistent gap between…
Debating Social Media for Minors: A Guide to the Issues, Laws, and Arguments
The question of how to manage children's and teenagers' access to social media has evolved from a private family matter into a pressing national…
How America Regulates Minors’ Access to Pornography
The internet that parents knew as teenagers no longer exists. What began as a frontier governed by self-regulation has become a battleground where states…
Your Mail Privacy Rights: What USPS Protects By Law
Mail privacy rules protect some contents more than envelope information. USPS inspection limits, personal records and reporting steps explain the difference.