What does "surveillance" mean within the Fourth Amendment context?

Within the context of the Fourth Amendment, "surveillance" refers to monitoring activities without the subject's consent, which impacts an individual's privacy rights. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures, and this protection extends to surveillance activities that intrude on an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy.

Monitoring activities, particularly in private settings or through the use of technology, can constitute a violation of those rights if conducted without proper legal authority or in a manner deemed unreasonable. This emphasis on privacy and the necessity for law enforcement to have a valid reason or warrant to conduct such surveillance aligns with the core principles of the Fourth Amendment, safeguarding against potential government overreach.

This perspective distinguishes surveillance that occurs in private or semi-private contexts, where individuals have a legitimate expectation of privacy, from other types of observation that may not carry the same implications for privacy rights. For instance, keeping watch over public spaces, while theoretically an aspect of surveillance, does not generally raise the same Fourth Amendment concerns as monitoring private activities without consent.