The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has handed down a decision which puts reasonable limits on data searches and sets specific guidelines for the use of electronically stored information seized under a warrant.
In order to execute a warrant for the retrieval of specific data from a computer, entire hard drives and other electronic storage media are often seized and then browsed at will for other incriminating evidence against those who are not even the specific targets of the investigation.
In USA v Comprehensive Drug Testing the court firmly slapped down the "plain view exception" claim which has been used to justify the use of other computer evidence observed while searching through electronically stored information for the specific data sought under a warrant.
Both a summary of the case and the full text of the decision are available at the above link. It's worth the time to take a look. These guidelines actually make some sense.
