IP address next??

[u133209]

No matter how much of our personal lives exist in e-mail services such as Gmail, a U.S. District Court judge says if the government takes a look at your e-mail.

The opinion by federal judge Michael Mosman, handed down in Portland, Oregon, involves a case in which the government has probable cause for a search and asked Google to provide nine months of a Gmail subscriber's e-mails, seeking evidence of the crime. Furthermore, the feds asked that the search warrant be sealed and that the user shouldn't be told what was happening.
Gmail isn't the only e-mail provider that might face this situation. Other services, including Microsoft's Hotmail and AOL, say in their usage terms that they'll share information with the government when required by warrant or court order. What's shocking is that this could be happening without your knowledge.

Mosman's ruling reversed an earlier decision that the user must get a receipt after the government rifles through e-mail. Though he says electronic communications are protected by the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable search and seizure, those protections don't apply to the e-mail user. If the government takes a look at your e-mail, the obligation to disclose what was searched ends at the Internet Service Provider.

Mosman gives this analogy: If the government seizes a package sent by FedEx, the recipient and the sender don't have to be told, as long as FedEx gets a copy of the warrant. Also, Mosman wrote that the government didn't take any property, so to speak, because e-mail can be viewed from anywhere.

The nut of the issue is that Mosman doesn't liken e-mail to personal property stored at home. "If a suspect leaves private documents at his mother's house and the police obtain a warrant to search his mother's house, they need only provide a copy of the warrant and a receipt to the mother, even though she is not the 'owner' of the documents," he writes.

However, Mosman writes that the law remains unclear about whether information stored online is like a "virtual home." I think enough people assume so that we need some legislation to iron this out.

[Fonger]

thanks U.

[qzoon]

the governments analogy,you would think would also apply to file sharing,because that doesn't really exist either

[sodusme]

My problem with this is email can't be "viewed from anywhere"....its intended for its rightful recipient....no one else....the govt. included. You're breaching someones privacy when you make an attempt to view emails....with their analogy then I could hack into emails all day and I would be doing nothing wrong....of course we all know that wouldn't fly. Why are they allowed to do this horse sh!t then?.....OHhhh I know because they are the all knowing, all seeing Government!!!!!!

[pansatmans]

There is always some risk

[u133209]

Originally Posted by sodusme

My problem with this is email can't be "viewed from anywhere"....its intended for its rightful recipient....no one else....the govt. included. You're breaching someones privacy when you make an attempt to view emails....with their analogy then I could hack into emails all day and I would be doing nothing wrong....of course we all know that wouldn't fly. Why are they allowed to do this horse sh!t then?.....OHhhh I know because they are the all knowing, all seeing Government!!!!!!

Oh I see your point and couldn't agree more!! They (Government) always find a way to get into your privacy!!

[Boxxo]

Its just the beginning folks !!! ..... NEW WORLD ORDER is coming !!

They are watching you.....

[1919a6]

I also see here a difference between web based email, such as Yahoo and gmail, versus POP email which is downloaded from a remote server to your hard drive.

I am sure that ISPs keep emails in archive form, but what about the legal ramifications of email that was never intended to by stored 'online' and is residing on the defendants hard drive?

Once again, however, if you are doing something that you want to keep private, good encryption is the way to go. NAG3 your email!

[sodusme]

Or use a VPN in conjunction with a "hushmail" account....it purges after 3 weeks of inactivity and is purged entirely from their database after 1 year.

[tallle]

Originally Posted by qzoon

the governments analogy,you would think would also apply to file sharing,because that doesn't really exist either

same with sat signal