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Federal Judge Says E-mail Not Protected By 4th Amendment
DustyShadow writes "In the case In re United States, Judge Mosman ruled that there is no constitutional requirement of notice to the account holder because the Fourth Amendment does not apply to e-mails under the third-party doctrine. 'When a person uses the Internet, the user's actions are no longer in his or her physical home; in fact he or she is not truly acting in private space at all. The user is generally accessing the Internet with a network account and computer storage owned by an ISP like Comcast or NetZero. All materials stored online, whether they are e-mails or remotely stored documents, are physically stored on servers owned by an ISP. When we send an e-mail or instant message from the comfort of our own homes to a friend across town the message travels from our computer to computers owned by a third party, the ISP, before being delivered to the intended recipient. Thus 'private' information is actually being held by third-party private companies."" Updated 2:50 GMT by timothy: Orin Kerr, on whose blog post of yesterday this story was founded, has issued an important correction. He writes, at the above-linked Volokh Conspiracy, "In the course of re-reading the opinion to post it, I recognized that I was misreading a key part of the opinion. As I read it now, Judge Mosman does not conclude that e-mails are not protected by the Fourth Amendment. Rather, he assumes for the sake of argument that the e-mails are protected (see bottom of page 12), but then concludes that the third party context negates an argument for Fourth Amendment notice to the subscribers."
It's not about transportation, it's about destination.
Plus there's no expectation that FedEx would (or should) have access to the *contents* of your mail, but an ISP-hosted email account, currently, does have full access to the content, with your tacit approval.
There are options, potentially, for the more privacy minded:
* POP email with "delete from server" active will limit how much of your mail your ISP has access to.
* Run your own mailserver.
* Develop a mailserver that stores mail in an encrypted folder and requires your key to access.
That last one could also go a long way to helping solve the issue where private companies have to host their own mail and forbid employees from using other accounts solely to avoid the exposure of proprietary communications to third parties (the ISP). It also shouldn't be too difficult to set up...
I run my own mail server, you insensitive clod!
of course, the 'ever so smart judge' does not know this fine nuance.
the fact that packets travel along routers, bridges and gateways means that some of your 'property' is stored/forwarded outside your 'house'. BUT SO WHAT??
US mail travels in a store-forward way. are they allowed to read your mail because its 'not in your house, at the time' ?
finally, why is this moran allowed to concluded that ALL mail sits on 'webservers' ? even if it IS web-based, oftentimes its pop/imapped to your home system and then deleted off the server. or maybe you run old style port25 mail and it truly does go point to point and never 'sits' on an ISP for more than transit-time.
I'm really annoyed by judges who make decisions based on FALSE assumptions and lack of understanding. this judge should be fired or even tried for treason. his crime is THAT great; its a threat to some fundamental privacy that the constitution (once) allowed us.
those who seek to over-rule constitutional laws ARE traitors. look it up.
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"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
When a person uses the Internet, the user's actions are no longer in his or her physical home... All materials stored online, whether they are e-mails or remotely stored documents, are physically stored on servers owned by an ISP
Yes, just like:
- Mail
- Safe deposit boxes
- Bank accounts
- Voice mails
- Telephone conversations
- Storage units
As far as I know, all of the above things are subject to the 4th amendment. WTF???!!!
I would like a warrant for the Senates email accounts please... All of em...