OPINION ON APPELLANT’S PETITION FOR DISCRETIONARY REVIEW
CLINTON, Judge.
Appellant was convicted of the offense of engaging in organized criminal activity in violation of V.T.C.A. Penal Code, § 71.-02, and the jury assessed punishment at life confinement in the penitentiary and a $10,000 fine. On appeal he contended, inter alia, that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to suppress evidence obtained by use of a pen register because the use of the pen register was a search in contemplation of Article I, § 9 of the Texas Constitution; therefore, Article 18.21 V.A.C.C.P. is unconstitutional insofar as it authorizes a search without requiring a showing of probable cause.1 The Amarillo Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that Article 18.21, supra, is not unconstitutional for failing to require probable cause because the use of a pen register is not a search under the Texas Constitution. Richardson v. State, 821 S.W.2d 304 (Tex.App.—Amarillo 1991).
We have seen this cause before. Richardson v. State, 824 S.W.2d 585 (Tex.Cr.App. 1992). Because the court of appeals relied on cases from this Court which held that Article I, § 9 was not more restrictive than the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, we vacated the judgment of the court of appeals and remanded the case for reconsideration in light of our opinion in Heitman v. State, 815 S.W.2d 681 (Tex.Cr.App.1991) (When analyzing and interpreting Article I, § 9, Texas courts will not be bound [946]*946by Supreme Court decisions addressing the comparable Fourth Amendment issue). On remand, the court of appeals reaffirmed its original holding. Richardson v. State, 831 S.W.2d 78 (Tex.App.—Amarillo 1992). We granted appellant’s second petition for discretionary review to determine the novel question of whether the installation and use of a pen register by law enforcement personnel requires probable cause under the Texas Constitution. Tex.R.App.Pro., Rule 200(c)(2).
1.
Facts
In March of 1988, officers of the Texas Department of Public Safety were involved in an extensive investigation of a suspected drug ring operating in Lubbock County. The investigation centered around appellant, who was in the Lubbock County Jail awaiting trial for capital murder, and several other individuals residing at the Seven Acres Lodge, a motel in Lubbock. Despite appellant’s incarceration, officers believed that he was controlling a cocaine and crack distribution organization using the telephones located in the county jail, by placing calls to a private telephone located at the Seven Acres Lodge. Due to the difficulty in investigating this case through customary investigative techniques, the officers sought court orders authorizing electronic surveillance to assist in their identification of co-conspirators and the modus operandi of the alleged trafficking organization.
On March 30, 1988, in accordance with the provisions of Article 18.21, supra, the officers applied for and received a court order authorizing the installation of a pen register to catalogue the telephone numbers dialed from (806) 744-4729, a telephone at the Seven Acres Lodge. The officers then combined this information with other information outlined in a fifty-six page affidavit signed by Officer J.A. Randall, and on April 13, 1988, applied for and received a court order authorizing the wiretapping and recording of communications on the same telephone line. See Article 18.20, Y.A.C.C.P. The wiretap intercepted numerous incriminating telephone conversations involving appellant and other targeted suspects. Based largely on these conversations, the officers executed several search warrants which uncovered evidence relating to the drug trafficking organization. This evidence and the taped conversations were presented to the jury which ultimately convicted appellant.
Prior to trial on the merits, appellant filed several motions seeking to suppress all “fruits” derived from the pen registers. In a single motion, appellant sought to suppress any evidence obtained through registers installed on the telephones on numbers (806) 741-1271, (806) 741-1272 and (806) 744-4729 or any other telephone number in connection with the present investigation. Despite the breadth of appellant’s motion, testimony at the pretrial hearing revealed that there were only two court orders issued in this case authorizing pen registers. The first pen register was ordered on March 30, 1988, and was installed to record the telephone numbers dialed from (806) 744-4729, a private telephone at the Seven Acres Lodge. The second pen register was ordered on April 14, 1988, and was installed to record the telephone numbers dialed from (806) 741-1272, a limited use telephone in the Lubbock County Jail. In both instances, the installation of the register was authorized by court order pursuant to Article 18.21, supra.
Appellant argued that the government’s use of a pen register is a search under Article I, § 9 of the Texas Constitution:
“yet the provisions of 18.21 allow such installations without the showing of probable cause that criminal activity is, has been or is about to be engaged in and that said telephone is, has been, or is expected to be utilized in the course of conduct of such criminal activity.”
Thus, appellant argued that Article 18.21 is unconstitutional and that the court orders issued in the instant case, which failed to set forth probable cause, were illegal and ineffectual, and all fruits of the execution of these [947]*947orders should be suppressed. The trial court summarily denied appellant’s motion without comment.2
Court of Appeals’ Opinion
The court of appeals disposed of appellant’s contentions on appeal on the basis of a broad holding that the use of a pen register is never a search within the purview of Article I, § 9. Whether the government’s activity was a search depends upon whether at the time the activity occurred appellant had a reasonable expectation of privacy. Richardson, at 80. The court of appeals observed:
“[w]hen making a telephone call, a person conveys the information as to the number called to the telephone company. Thus, as contrasted to the content of the telephone conversation which, of course, is not revealed in the usual course of business, a caller has no reasonable expectation of privacy as to the number called. The information as to the number called is not information which is concealed ... but is, rather, information which has been disclosed.”
Id. Because an individual does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the numbers which are disclosed to the telephone company, the court of appeals reasoned, the government’s use of a pen register to cata-logue those numbers is not a search under Article I, § 9. Thus, Article 18.21 is not unconstitutional for failing to require probable cause for the use and installation of a pen register.
The court of appeals did note that several other state courts have held their state constitutions do provide a person with a reasonable expectation of privacy in the telephone numbers dialed on the telephone. State v. Gunwall, 106 Wash.2d 54, 720 P.2d 808 (1986); People v. Sporleder, 666 P.2d 135 (Colo.1983); State v. Hunt, 91 N.J. 338, 450 A.2d 952 (1982). However, the court of appeals believed these courts placed undue emphasis on the facts that a telephone is a necessity of modern life and an individual has no choice but to divulge the number dialed to the telephone company. Instead, the court of appeals analogized the disclosure of the telephone number to an individual who “must travel in a manner that is open to public [948]*948view” in order to get to work or an individual who actually works in public view such as the cashier at a grocery store. Richardson, at 80. The court of appeals opined that the necessity of exposing oneself to public view in these situations dispels any reasonable expectation of privacy; therefore, so should the necessity of exposing the numbers dialed on a telephone.
The court of appeals also rejected the argument that a reasonable privacy interest exists because the caller’s disclosure of the telephone numbers was for the limited business purpose of providing telephone communication services and was not for release to the general public. The court of appeals was persuaded that such logic would result in “a drug dealer who solicits sales on a street corner” having “a reasonable expectation of privacy because his solicitation has been made for a limited business purpose.” Id., at 80-81. In our estimation the court of appeals has taken too narrow a view of the privacy interest under Article I, § 9.
II.
Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
Article I, § 9 of the Constitution of the State of Texas provides:
“The people shall be secure in their persons, houses, papers and possessions, from all unreasonable seizures or searches, and no warrant to search any place, or to seize any person or thing, shall issue without describing them as near as may be, nor without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation.”
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution acknowledges the inviolability of the “right” of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. If anything, Article I, § 9 recognizes that same basic protection, but in terms more imperative. We have observed that the two provisions are “in all material aspects, the same.” Eisenhauer v. State, 754 S.W.2d 159, at 162 (Tex.Cr.App.1988). But in Heitman v. State, supra, we disavowed any notion that because the two provisions are “the same,” this Court is obliged to interpret their protections co-extensively. Even if the language of Article I, § 9 were identical with that of the Fourth Amendment, we must construe that language according to our own lights.3 Id.; Brown v. State, 657 S.W.2d 797 (Tex.Cr.App.1983) (Clinton, J., concurring); Eisenhauer v. State, supra (Clinton, J., dissenting); Osban v. State, 726 S.W.2d 107 (Tex.Cr.App.1986) (Miller, J., dissenting). We do not hesitate, however, to examine Fourth Amendment analogues, or the construction other states have given their own constitutional provisions regarding search and seizure, for guidance. Heitman, supra, at 690, n. 22.
As with the Fourth Amendment, the purpose of Article I, § 9 is to safeguard an individual’s legitimate expectation of privacy from unreasonable governmental intrusions. Green v. State, 566 S.W.2d 578 (Tex.Cr.App.1978). “Thus, the Fourth Amendment and Article I, § 9, protect people not places.” Id., at 582. Under the Fourth Amendment, the substantive question of what is a search was effectively merged with what had been a procedural question of “standing” to challenge such a search. Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978). It is now a matter, not only of whether the government has breached some “reasonable,” “justifiable,” or “legitimate expectation of privacy” which existed in a particular place, Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), but also of who reasonably, justifiably or legitimately harbored that expectation. Chapa v. State, 729 S.W.2d 723 (Tex.Cr.App.1987). “The litmus for determining the existence of a legitimate expectation of privacy as to a particular accused is twofold: first,-did he exhibit by his conduct ‘an actual (subjective) expectation of privacy[;]’ and second, if he did, was that subjective expectation, ‘one that society is [949]*949prepared to recognize as “reasonable” ’ ” Id., at 727. Ultimately, in the context of both the Fourth Amendment and Article I, § 9, whether the government’s installation and use of a pen register constitutes a search necessarily depends upon whether appellant has a “legitimate expectation of privacy” in the numbers he dialed on the telephone. In other words, in determining the legitimacy of appellant’s expectation of privacy, the appropriate inquiry is whether appellant expected that the numbers he dialed on the telephone would be free from governmental intrusion, and, if he did, is this expectation one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable.
The Fourth Amendment Analogue
For purposes of the Fourth Amendment, a 5-3 majority of the Supreme Court has held that the installation and use of a pen register is not a search. This is so, the Court observed, because an individual “in all probability” entertains no actual expectation of privacy in the phone numbers he dials, and, even if he did, such an expectation is not “legitimate.” Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 99 S.Ct. 2577, 61 L.Ed.2d 220 (1979). The majority reasoned that telephone users “typically know that they must convey numerical information to the phone company; that the phone company has facilities for recording this information; and that the phone company does in fact record this information for a variety of legitimate business purposes.” Id., U.S. at 743, S.Ct. at 2581, L.Ed.2d at 228. Telephone users, therefore, cannot have an actual expectation that the numbers they dial will remain private.
The Smith majority further reasoned that even if an individual did have an actual expectation that the numbers he dials would remain secret, such an expectation is not one that society would recognize as reasonable. To the majority, the disclosure of the telephone numbers was similar to other eases in which the Court held that a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties. In particular, the Court noted United States v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435, 96 S.Ct. 1619, 48 L.Ed.2d 71 (1976), which held that the government could access a bank depositor’s financial records, including the depositor’s monthly statement, checks and deposit slips, without probable cause. The Miller Court noted “that the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit the obtaining of information revealed to a third party and conveyed by him to government authorities, even if the information is revealed on the assumption that it will be used only for a limited purpose and the confidence placed in the third party will not be betrayed.” Miller, at 443, 48 L.Ed.2d 71, 96 S.Ct. 1619. Thus, the bank depositor who has voluntarily disclosed certain financial information to the bank and, necessarily, its employees, takes the risk that the information will be conveyed by the bank or its employees to the government. Having assumed this risk, the bank depositor has no legitimate expectation of privacy.
Similarly, the caller who has voluntarily disclosed the telephone number to the telephone company has assumed the risk that the telephone company would reveal these numbers to the police. For this reason the telephone caller has no legitimate expectation of privacy in the telephone numbers dialed. The installation and use of a pen register to record these numbers is therefore not a search under the Fourth Amendment, and no warrant is required.
Critical Response to Smith
The Supreme Court’s holding in Smith has not gone without criticism. Quite the contrary, a number of legal commentators have rejected the Court’s holding as making “a mockery of the Fourth Amendment.” 1 W. LaFave, Search And Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 2.7(b), at 507 (2d ed. 1987).
“Under Smith, the police may without any cause whatsoever and for whatever purpose they choose uncover private relationships with impunity merely because the telephone company might under some circumstances for certain limited purposes [950]*950make a record of such relationships for the company’s oum use. Indeed, it is enough for the majority in Smith that the telephone company has the capacity to make a record of such relationships, even though the company has the good sense not to offend its subscribers by making or keeping those records for no reason.”
Id., at 507. LaFave agreed with Justice Marshall’s dissent that the mere fact that a telephone user may know the telephone company can monitor his calls for internal reasons does not necessarily mean that he expects “this information to be made available to the public in general or the government in particular.” Smith, 442 U.S. at 749, 99 S.Ct. at 2585. LaFave went on at length to say:
“It was clear even before Katz that the protections of the Fourth Amendment extend to certain matters which are not absolutely, 100% private. Thus, even though a tenant may not have absolute privacy in his home because the landlord may enter ‘to view waste,’ the Supreme Court did not hesitate to hold that the residence is protected by the Fourth Amendment from police intrusion even with the landlord’s permission. [Footnote citing Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 81 S.Ct. 776, 5 L.Ed.2d 828 (1961).] Similarly a person who rents a hotel room cannot be said to have absolute privacy in that room, for ‘he gives “implied or express permission” to “such persons as maids, janitors or repairmen” to enter his room “in the performance of their duties,” ’ but this certainly does not mean that a hotel room is not protected by the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable police entry. [Footnote citing Stoner v. California, 376 U.S. 483, 84 S.Ct. 889, 11 L.Ed.2d 856 (1964).] Katz did not overrule those decisions, but rather extended them to situations in which no physical trespass is necessary for the police to obtain that which an individual sought to preserve as private. This being so, it makes no sense to say that the telephone subscriber (any more than the tenant or the hotel occupant) is fair game for unrestrained police scrutiny merely because he has surrendered some degree of his privacy for a limited purpose to those with whom he is doing business. As Professor Amsterdam put it ‘[t]he fact that our ordinary social intercourse, uncontrolled by government, imposes certain risks upon us hardly means that government is constitutionally unconstrained in adding to those risks.’ [Footnote citing Amsterdam, Perspectives on the Fourth Amendment, 58 Minn.L.Rev. 349, 406 (1974).]”
Lafave, at 508.
Another noted commentator in the area of electronic surveillance agrees with Lafave that the majority in Smith “failed to appreciate, or to adequately discuss, several considerations.” C. Fishman, Wiretapping and Eavesdropping § 28.1(2), at 251-252 (Supp. 1992). Recognizing that ordinarily telephone companies do not make records of local numbers dialed from a telephone, Fishman believes it “strains logic” to hold that an individual should expect and assume the risk that such a record would be made at the request of the police. Id., at 252. Additionally, it “is inappropriate to speak of a tele^ phone user assuming the risk of pen register surveillance, since the user has no practical alternative but to forego the use of the telephone altogether. Further, unrestricted use of pen registers by the police would have a substantial and deleterious effect on privacy” since the disclosure of an individual’s personal contacts reveals an enormous amount of information about that individual. Id.
In addition to the commentators, numerous state courts have criticized the Supreme Court’s holding in Smith. At least seven States have rejected the reasoning of Smith, holding that their state constitutions provide an individual with a protected privacy interest in the telephone numbers dialed from a telephone. State v. Hunt, supra (New Jersey Constitution gives a telephone subscriber a constitutionally protected privacy interest in the telephone company’s home toll billing records for the subscriber’s telephone); People v. Blair, 25 Cal.3d 640, 159 Cal.Rptr. 818, [951]*951at 826, 602 P.2d 738, at 746 (1979) (“a hotel guest may reasonably expect that the calls he makes from his room are recorded by the hotel for billing purposes only, and will not be disclosed to others without legal process”); Commonwealth v. Beauford, 327 Pa.Super. 253, 475 A.2d 783, at 791 (1984) (“an individual’s expectation of privacy in telephone numbers he calls is reasonable, legitimate, and is protected by the State Constitution against government surveillance and intrusion without probable cause”); People v. Sporleder, supra (under the Colorado Constitution a telephone subscriber has a legitimate expectation of privacy that telephone numbers dialed on a home telephone will remain private and that in the absence of exigent circumstances law enforcement officers must have a search warrant supported by probable cause prior to the installation of a pen register); State v. Gunwall, supra, at 813 (“The privacy interests of citizens which are protected by article 1, section 7 of the Washington State Constitution prevent the defendant’s long distance telephone records from being obtained from the phone company, or any pen register from being installed on her telephone connections, without a search warrant”); State v. Thompson, 114 Idaho 746, 760 P.2d 1162 (1988) (Installation of a pen register on defendant’s telephone line was a search under the State Constitution); Rothman v. State, 70 Haw. 546, 779 P.2d 1, at 7 (1989) (“persons having private telephone lines have a reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to the communication of the numbers they call, and the numbers of incoming calls, and the seizure of those numbers by the government, without a warrant, would violate such persons’ right to privacy”). All but one of these cases involve construction of a state constitutional provision that is substantially similar to our Article I, § 9.4
Underlying these criticisms is an idea expressed very eloquently in Beauford, supra:
“[t]he fact that the telephone company and its employees in the course of providing telephone service collect information on the numbers dialed from a particular phone does not alter one whit the ordinary expectation that the prying eyes of the government or anyone else will be kept in the dark absent legal process. Indeed, an expectation to the contrary — that information provided to the telephone company for a limited record-keeping purpose automatically becomes available to the police for criminal investigative purposes — should have no foundation in a free society.”
Id., 327 Pa.Super. 253, 475 A.2d at 789-790. We agree. The mere fact that a telephone caller has disclosed the number called to the telephone company for the limited purpose of obtaining the services does not invariably lead to the conclusion that the caller has relinquished his expectation of privacy such that the telephone company is free to turn the information over to anyone, especially the police, absent legal process.5
III.
Both the Supreme Court in Smith and the court of appeals in this cause operate [952]*952under what we regard as an erroneous belief that any voluntary disclosure of information will destroy a reasonable expectation of privacy of that information. The Supreme Court reasoned that by disclosing information to a third party, an individual “assumes the risk” of further disclosure by that third party to the government. 442 U.S. at 744, 99 S.Ct. at 2582, 61 L.Ed.2d at 229. Having assumed that risk, the individual cannot reasonably expect the information to remain private. With all due respect, we believe this analysis begs the question.6
Certainly it is true that a general or indiscriminate disclosure of what otherwise may seem private information by its very nature evinces the lack even of a subjective expectation of privacy. Thus, the drug vendor of the court of appeals’ hypothetical, hawking his wares on the street, does not even demonstrate a subjective belief that his activities will remain private. Even if he did, the open ñatee of the disclosure obviates any possibility that the public would share his belief, and thus he cannot claim an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy. We agree with the court of appeals that it makes no difference that he claims the disclosure serves a business (albeit an illicit business) purpose.
But whether an individual “assumes the risk” that a more limited disclosure will open the door to public disclosure depends, we think, upon the reasonableness of his subjective belief (if any) that the disclosure will in fact go no further. A selective diselo-sure may evidence a subjective expectation of privacy; the circumstances in which information is related to a third party may show a unilateral or even a mutual understanding that the information will remain confidential. This is not an understanding that society is invariably willing to recognize as legitimate, however, for society may have no particular stake in the matter. See Smith v. Maryland, U.S. at 743-44, S.Ct. at 2582, L.Ed.2d at 229. Thus, a subjective expectation of privacy despite a limited disclosure is not always a “reasonable” one.
There are some subjective expectations of privacy, however, that society does sanction as legitimate in spite of limited, confidential disclosure. We would not want to say, for example, that society does not recognize the confidentiality of information imparted to a physician behind the closed doors of-an examination room. That certain facts may be revealed in the necessarily candid process of diagnosis and treatment does not mean we no longer have a collective interest in insulating them from public scrutiny. On the contrary, society accepts — indeed, positively insists- — that such information, although of necessity partly exposed, should nevertheless retain its essentially private character. Cf. State v. Comeaux, 818 S.W.2d 46, at 52-53 (Tex.Cr.App.1991) (Plurality opinion) (defendant had reasonable expectation that blood sample given to physician at hospital after accident would not “be submitted to the State, or to any other person or entity, for a purpose other than that [953]*953for which it was given.”).7 In view of this societal imperative, it is hardly fair to reason that the patient “assumed the risk” of public disclosure because of the forthrightness with which he spoke to his doctor.
Although the argument is not quite as compelling, we believe it would be likewise unfair to hold that the customer “assumes the risk” of public disclosure of a number he dials on the telephone. Other than for billing purposes, the telephone company itself has no interest in memorializing that information. Moreover, the telephone company is fiercely protective of what it considers the privacy interest of its customers even in the information it does record in the ordinary course of business — as any private citizen will discover if he attempts to obtain the telephone bill of another customer without that other’s express permission.8 See People v. Sporleder, supra, at 141. It goes without saying that telecommunications are pervasive in our society. The telephone company’s vigilance in protecting from public disclosure the uses to which its customers put their telephones reflects a value that is equally pervasive. As with information imparted to a doctor, we share a common understanding that the numbers we call remain our own affair, and will go no further. Thus, society recognizes as objectively reasonable the expectation of the telephone customer that the numbers he dials as a necessary incident of his use of the telephone will not be published to the rest of the world. Cf. Ex parte Gould, 60 Tex.Cr.R. 442, at 450, 132 S.W. 364, at 368 (1910) (telegraph communications are protected by Article I, § 9, as least to the extent that a subpoena must show with particularity, “describing ... as near as may be,” the messages sought to be discovered, the Court observing: “To a certain extent the telegraph company is but the trustee of the sender of the message. It has by reason thereof in its possession important and valuable communications which should not be subject to exposure to the prying curiosity of idle gossips, or the malice of malignant mischief makers.”).
It follows that the use of a pen register may well constitute a “search” under Article I, § 9 of the Texas Constitution.9 [954]*954The question remaining is whether such a search would be “unreasonable” in the absence of probable cause. If so, then to the extent it authorizes a court ordered pen register without a showing of probable cause, Article 18.21, supra, violates Article I, § 9. Because the court of appeals did not decide the question of reasonableness, inter alia, we remand the cause for further disposition.10
The judgment of the court of appeals is vacated and the cause is remanded to that court for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
MILLER, J., joins with note:
While it is true that the State raised expectation of privacy under the facts of this case in the court of appeals, they believed the threshold question to answer was whether a search occurs generally in a pen register case. To say at this date that the threshold question is expectation of privacy under the facts of this case is a needless slap in the face to the court of appeals.
This Court’s function is to answer the questions presented in grounds for review contained in granted petitions for discretionary review. The issue of expectation of privacy under the facts of this case is not contained in this case’s ground for review either top, side, or bottom. However, it now can be addressed and answered by the court of appeals, as I presume it would have been had they answered differently the threshold questions of general expectation of privacy in the dialing of telephone numbers and whether there was even a search in this case.
WHITE, J., dissents.