If we&#x27;re going by the text alone, the 4th amendment protects your <i>property</i> from authorities on a witch hunt: &quot;persons, houses, papers, and effects.&quot; All are all property, and can be the subject of a trespass action (trespass to the person, trespass to land, trespass to chattel) when someone uses those things inconsistently with your property right. The 4th amendment doesn&#x27;t say anything about &quot;private matters&quot; (and the motivating example of the 4th amendment was searches for contraband, not intrusion into &quot;private matters&quot;). &quot;Expectation of privacy&quot; is something the Supreme Court tacked onto the Constitution in 1967 during the Warren Court.