--- title: James Comey: 'There's No Such Thing as Absolute Privacy" description: FBI James Comey told Boston College a day after refuting President Donald Trump's wiretap claims that privacy doesn't exist in the U.S. canonical: https://time.com/4696091/fbi-james-comey-privacy-speech/ author: Lucinda Shen article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-08T22:49:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:44:43.223Z article:section: Politics og:title: James Comey: 'There Is No Such Thing as Absolute Privacy in America' og:description: He also said there's "no place in America outside of judicial reach" og:url: https://time.com/4696091/fbi-james-comey-privacy-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d4f3cfc39128cb0/6988bda87cdbac00b5d5769e/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: FBI Director James Comey speaks to guests at the "First Boston Conference on Cyber Security" at Boston College,on March 8, 2017 in Boston. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: James Comey: 'There Is No Such Thing as Absolute Privacy in America' twitter:description: He also said there's "no place in America outside of judicial reach" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d4f3cfc39128cb0/6988bda87cdbac00b5d5769e/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # FBI Director James Comey: 'There Is No Such Thing as Absolute Privacy in America' by [Lucinda Shen](https://time.com/author/lucinda-shen/) ## Lucinda Shen Mar 8, 2017 10:49 PM UTC  FBI Director James Comey speaks to guests at the "First Boston Conference on Cyber Security" at Boston College,on March 8, 2017 in Boston. FBI Director James Comey speaks to guests at the "First Boston Conference on Cyber Security" at Boston College,on March 8, 2017 in Boston.Ryan Mcbride—AFP/Getty Images by [Lucinda Shen](https://time.com/author/lucinda-shen/) ## Lucinda Shen Mar 8, 2017 10:49 PM UTC FBI Director [James Comey](http://time.com/4693523/fbi-james-comey-sxsw/) warned Americans that true privacy isn’t really possible anymore in a speech Wednesday. “There’s no such thing as absolute privacy in America,” Comey said at a Boston College cybersecurity conference, [Politico](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/james-comey-to-serve-full-term-235818) reported. “There is no place in America outside of judicial reach.” He also said at the conference: “Even our memories aren’t private. Any of us can be compelled to say what we saw.” Comey did note that he was a fan of privacy. According to Politico, Comey cited his Instagram account shared with only close friends and family, saying that he didn’t want just anybody seeing his photos. [Comey’s comments](http://time.com/4695921/senators-want-trump-wiretap-evidence/) came just a day after Wikileaks released files [allegedly from the FBI’s sister organization](http://time.com/4693332/wikileaks-documents-cia-cyber-intelligence/), the Central Intelligence Agency. Those papers appeared to show that the CIA had tools to compromise popular consumer technology including Apple iPhones and Android-powered devices. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4696091/fbi-james-comey-privacy-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4696091/fbi-james-comey-privacy-speech/"},"headline":"FBI Director James Comey: 'There Is No Such Thing as Absolute Privacy in America'","datePublished":"2017-03-08T22:49:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:44:43.223Z","description":"He also said there's \"no place in America outside of judicial reach\"","url":"https://time.com/4696091/fbi-james-comey-privacy-speech/","keywords":["privacy","James Comey","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d4f3cfc39128cb0/6988bda87cdbac00b5d5769e/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lucinda Shen","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lucinda-shen/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5d4f3cfc39128cb0/6988bda87cdbac00b5d5769e/james-comey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FBI Director James Comey speaks to guests at the \"First Boston Conference on Cyber Security\" at Boston College,on March 8, 2017 in Boston.","caption":"FBI Director James Comey speaks to guests at the \"First Boston Conference on Cyber Security\" at Boston College,on March 8, 2017 in Boston.","creditText":"Ryan Mcbride—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/privacy/","name":"privacy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4696091/fbi-james-comey-privacy-speech/","name":"FBI Director James Comey: 'There Is No Such Thing as Absolute Privacy in America'"}}]}] ```