Our Dwindling Email Privacy—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)

icon gravatar.comharpers.org/archive/2009/11/hbc-90006019
sent by Sparrows since 16 days 12 hours 43 minutes, published about 16 days 1 time 18 minutes
What sort of privacy do you expect when you send an email? As Americans increasingly rely on the Internet for communication, Justice Department lawyers increasingly argue that Americans have no right to privacy there—notwithstanding repeated congressional efforts to bolster these rights. A recent case out of Oregon shows how the privacy expectation associated with emails and other Internet communications is being frittered away. The government sought to subpoena the emails of a suspect in a criminal investigation. It issued a subpoena to Google, but it failed to give notice to the subscriber as the federal rules and statute would appear to require. The purpose of notice is fairly straightforward: it gives the subject the opportunity to contest the subpoena and puts him on notice of the government’s investigation. Implementing the protections of the Fourth Amendment, isn’t the subscriber entitled to notice? Not in the view of Judge Michael Mosman:---
tags: email, internet, privacy, 4th amendment
3 commentscategory: Abuse of Power/Corruption karma: 129

comments

  1. #1    The Bushevik is trying to opine that no 4th Amendment exists. Maybe that is why some people own their own servers. Since he speaks to the ISP servers that we all use, I wonder how he would address those that are their own providers???
    written by Sparrows since 16 days 12 hours 41 minutesSparrows
  2. #2    This is a _political_ issue, of course, but _practically_ the paradigm is, was and always has been that email is a postcard. If you want privacy learn to use pgp and make sure the people you communicate with use it too. Yeah, seems impractical, but there it is.
    written by smchris since 16 days 45 minutessmchris
  3. #3    In telecom law there's a special status for the big carriers -- common carrier. We don't yet have that (apparently) for Internet services. This means the Internet servicers who maintain copies of various things sent through their pipes don't guarantee privacy to their customers. It would appear the gov't is attempting to use that loophole to drive their truck through.

    We need the Internet to achieve "common carrier" status to eliminate any scintilla of possibility the gov't can get around 4th Amendment restrictions.
    written by MarkH since 15 days 11 hours 46 minutesMarkH
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