The privacy implications and constitutional externalities are much larger (and easily abused) when it involves the interception of voice calls, emails, sms, locations, etc and now potentially all computer activity that happens in memory.
Wiretaps involve analyzing past data and actively monitoring new communications. Including every person you call or every website you visit. Police often have to delete 99%+ of intercepted data because it's irrelevant to the case.
That's different in many ways from a single physical search warrant on a house or computer.
And now they are becoming the go-to investigative tool for every criminal case...
I'd wager police also have to ignore 99%+ of the junk in your house when they execute a regular search warrant. They're going to look through your underwear drawer, but they're not actually going to confiscate all your underwear.
99% of the things sitting in any persons house at any moment is not as private as their ongoing phone calls, emails, websites they visit, etc. Nor does it simultaneously invade other peoples privacy in the process (any person they communicate with)... over a multi-month period.
Using your analogy, the 99% of things the police are supposed to ignore, such as their clothing drawers, does not carry equal weight in terms of privacy.
I'm not unique in having this position, lawyers/judges/courts view it as a much broader breach of privacy as well and they (often) require much stronger legal restrictions for the police than a standard search warrant.
The privacy implications and constitutional externalities are much larger (and easily abused) when it involves the interception of voice calls, emails, sms, locations, etc and now potentially all computer activity that happens in memory.
Wiretaps involve analyzing past data and actively monitoring new communications. Including every person you call or every website you visit. Police often have to delete 99%+ of intercepted data because it's irrelevant to the case.
That's different in many ways from a single physical search warrant on a house or computer.
And now they are becoming the go-to investigative tool for every criminal case...