Land remote-sensing satellites are developing as a commercial communications technology after years under a government monopoly. The shift to the private sector and improving quality of the pictures produced have given rise to increased concerns about the potential for violations of privacy rights. Although satellites can currently photograph only fairly large objects, improvements in satellite technology invite claims based on unreasonable searches by the government, tort privacy law, and tort trade secrets law. Two separate cases, brought by the Dow Chemical Company and by a California marijuana grower, in which the courts decided that the photographs produced by satellites were not injurious to the defendants, have strengthened the arguments of the government to use remote-sensing satellites despite Fourth Amendment challenges. Moreover, it appears that most news media use of satellite images would resist privacy claims in the United States if the freedom were practiced with some restraint. Cases concerning the use of aerial photographs for the purpose of obtaining and releasing trade secrets may be protected as well, although such decisions are less certain due to the outcome of the "E.I. duPont deNemours & Company versus Christopher" case. Privacy laws at present pose few obstacles to the use of satellite images, but several cases offer warning that a more restrictive environment could emerge if satellite use were to become generally perceived as invasive of basic privacy rights. (Footnotes are provided.) (JC)