In fact, the word "search" in the context of the FBI search is very different from the use of the same word in the Bill of Rights. There is no physical thing entering someone's premises. The worm is not a real physical being. It is just a set of instructions. If the worm reports anything to the FBI it is not really the worm doing the reporting. It is someone's computer physically doing the reporting. The FBI just causes it to do it by giving it instructions. The FBI could have phoned the person and asked her if she happened to have a secret document. In doing so the FBI would be instruting the person's phone to ring. Not much different than what the worm does, but it does cause more inconvenience to the person, while most people would not consider this to be the kind of search the constitution refers to.

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I wonder whether the paragraph about "courts felt entitled" has to be updated to reflect that a huge folderol has been whipped up by reactionaries about normal legal behavior that they like to call "activist judges." One hopes this will go the way of all Fox-style TV rhetoric and be forgotten in a few months, but a lot of spokespeople are trying to keep it alive.

Andy Oram