The Computer in German and American Constitutional Law: Towards an American Right of Informational Self-Determination

In 1890 Warren and Brandeis announced a "right to privacy" in an article in the Harvard Law Review.' Since this article drew its famous phrase, "the right to be let alone," from a tort treatise published a few years earlier,2 the festivities celebrating the centennial of the right to privacy need not wait until 1990. Before the festivities can begin, however, we must decide if they are merited. The privacy article of Warren and Brandeis protests against the yellow press and attempts to provide a legal basis for protecting the individual from abusive journalistic practices.3 Another privacy issue of that era was the attempt by the government to compel production of private books and papers. This activity led to the first great Fourth Amendment case of the Supreme Court, Boyd v. United States.4 Over the next decades, a new tort, a privacy tort, was created in most states and some constitutional protection was given to letters, personal papers and other personal effects. In their article, Warren and Brandeis declared that "[t]he intensity and complexity of life, attendant upon advanced civilization"