Fourth Amendment-Private Search Doctrine

WI Court of Supreme Court

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Andreas W. Rauch Sharak

Case No.: 2024AP000469-CR

Officials:

Focus: Fourth Amendment-Private Search Doctrine

Google’s automated systems flagged images in Rauch Sharak’s Google Photos account as suspected child sexual abuse material (CSAM). A Google employee viewed the flagged files and submitted a CyberTip to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), which forwarded it to law enforcement. An officer viewed the same files without a warrant and later obtained a warrant to search Rauch Sharak’s home, where additional CSAM was found.

Rauch Sharak argued that Google acted as a government agent because federal statutes regulating electronic service providers (including 18 U.S.C. § 2258A and 47 U.S.C. § 230) effectively encouraged or required such searches. The court rejected this claim. Applying a totality-of-the-circumstances test, it concluded that Google acted as a private party because the government did not initiate, direct, or participate in the search, Google had independent business reasons to detect and remove CSAM, and the cited statutes did not require providers to affirmatively scan user content.

The Court of Appeals found that because Google was a private actor, its search did not implicate the Fourth Amendment, and that law enforcement’s later viewing of the same files fell within the private-search doctrine, as officers did not exceed the scope of Google’s prior review.

Decided 02/24/26

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