Slashdot Mirror


Obama Administration Wants Your Old Email

Nemesisghost wrote to us with a story about attempts to reform the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Under the act, messages left on a server are considered abandoned after six months and are trivially subpoenaed by law enforcement. A group of ISPs is lobbying to extend the protections afforded to locally stored messages to messages stored on third party servers, but the Obama administration is urging Congress not to reform the law.

36 of 639 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Obama acomplishments by nomadic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nope, completely wrong; the left wing die hards have been criticizing him for a while. It's the moderates who like him. I'm a little disappointed in how he's done, though even now he is still head and shoulders above GWB, or how McCain would have been.

  2. Re:Obama acomplishments by Giometrix · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm pretty sure real left diehards are cursing him too.

    --
    Download free e-books, lectures, and tutorials at bookgoldmine.com
  3. One good reason to avoid webmail. by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well here would be one big reason to avoid webmail or outsourced mail servers in general.

    Although most people really aren't "geeky" enough to avoid having someone else handle their email server. This law is just attempting to take advantage of the average n00b's clueless and disorganized nature....

    +...calling something at the bottom of that big pile on your desk "abandoned".

    They should enforce a standard like that for out of print creative works...

    It's all just a part of the Corporate/Individual double standard that both parties heartily embrace.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    1. Re:One good reason to avoid webmail. by niftydude · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you are worried about privacy, then you shouldn't use outsourced webmail at all.

      I was astounded to find out the other day that on yahoo mail servers, the word delete doesn't mean what you think it means. It just ticks a bit in a db field which prevents the email showing in your inbox and being counted in your quota.

      However, the yahoo coders were too incompetent to leave the emails out of the search function.

      Imagine my surprise when I performed a search recently, and emails I had deleted and emptied from my trash in 2007 showed up!!!

      Are those emails considered abandoned (since I marked them as deleted) and available under this new legislation?
      There is no privacy in the cloud.

      --
      You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
  4. Cloud Computing by denshao2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is my old data on a cloud based system considered abandoned if I continue to actively use the system but don't touch some items?

  5. Re:Obama acomplishments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, Obama stopped the war and thank god he closed Gitmo! He's way better than G Dub!

  6. Not totally against this. by mywhitewolf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So they would require an additional warrant to investigate additional email addresses for emails older than 6 months? if someone had a PO box and a residential post box, does the law require 2 warrants to search each of the post boxes? the legal requirement should match this.

    However I disagree with the consideration that emails on a web server that are 6 months old on are abandoned.. i have 6 year old emails on the web that i still refer to occasionally, with a push to the more efficient cloud computing its important to recognize this, a web based email account should be considered the same as a PO box as far as privacy is concerned.

  7. Abandonment Term by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let's increase this term to Life + 95 years for e-mails sent by people, 120 years for those sent by corporations (including works for hire). For e-mails that are in the outbox, drafts, or any other unsent mail, it's life + 95 years, or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever is shorter.

  8. Re:Obama acomplishments by PeeAitchPee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    he is still head and shoulders above GWB

    We're still in Iraq. We're still in Afghanistan. He's started a third war in Libya. Gitmo is still open. Unemployment is still way too high. We're still broke and spending more than we ever have. The Patriot Act is still around and the Administration continues to press on with other initiatives which erode the rights of American citizens. So, exactly how is BHO "head and shoulders above GWB"?

  9. Obama Brought back Jobs and Growth by bit+trollent · · Score: 4, Informative

    Look at this chart.

    That chart shows that Barack Obama saved the economy from the Republican engineered disaster.

    A decade of Republican policies brought us an economic disaster. Barack Obama brought us back to growth and put us on the path for prosparity.

    We may wish it was faster, but every competent software developer already has a job, and the economy is only getting better. Err.. it was until the Republican party decided to shut down the government for the second time in as many decades.

    The people who complain that our recovery isn't fast enough advocate the policies (of insane deregulation) that brought us the economic disaster in the first place. And now of course they are doing their best to kill the recovery before it reaches the rest of the country.

    Just like they want to kill health care reform before it saves to many lives.

    1. Re:Obama Brought back Jobs and Growth by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually we to kill health care "reform" because it takes away the individual right to choose and represents a frightening expansion of Government. Few people would argue in favor of the status quo. We just don't think a 2,200 page rube goldberg piece of legislation that claims the power to regulate economic inactivity is the best way to go about fixing what is broken.

      Have you actually read the legislation that your party rammed down the throats of the American people? Did you know it makes it illegal to start up new hospitals? Did you know that it sets minimum standards of insurance that will preclude people from buying high deductible policies even if those policies make economic sense for them? Do you know they helped to pay for it by imposing excise taxes on medical devices (everything from pacemakers to breast implants) that will increase the cost of those devices and further inflate health care costs?

      This legislation stinks. Sorry that you are too busy hating the GOP and gloating over your supposed victory to see that.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    2. Re:Obama Brought back Jobs and Growth by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That same logic could be used to justify a repeal of the bankruptcy code and return to debtors prisons. Freeloaders whom can't pay their debts drive up borrowing costs for the rest of us.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    3. Re:Obama Brought back Jobs and Growth by StrahdVZ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I've never understood the Republicans' fear of "frightening expansion of government" while in the same breath they're happy to have the government track and monitor their every move in the interests of national security and tell them what they can and can not watch or read in the interests of morality.

      It doesn't make sense. How can you not trust them to give basic services and necessities to the poor, but you can seemingly trust them to listen in on your every move and tell you exactly what you can and can not do?

      Isn't the whole point of government to provide services to the community, as opposed to being a nanny?

    4. Re:Obama Brought back Jobs and Growth by bit+trollent · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The government intervened to help the economy, much to the consternation of Republicans everywhere.

      That intervention stemmed the job losses, as it was designed to. It gave money from the states that were hemmoraging teachers and other government funded jobs. Those teachers and other workers still paid their bills.

      The stimulus plan which was passed over Republican objections also created jobs in the private sector. These people also paid their bills and continued to support the rest of the economy.

      The President also propped up the banking system, allowing credit to continue flowing, even if at a slower pace.

      Over time, things got better until the private sector was able to start hiring again.

      Without government intervention, job losses would have continued unabated.

    5. Re:Obama Brought back Jobs and Growth by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      it takes away the individual right to choose

      What right do you think you have to "choose"? You've got to be kidding.

      Here you go:

      1) Coverage can not be denied to children with pre-existing conditions.
      2) Adults up to age 26 can stay on their parents' health plans.
      3) Free preventive care.
      4) Rescinding coverage is now illegal.
      5) Eliminating lifetime limits on insurance coverage.
      6) Restricting annual limits on insurance coverage.
      7) More options to appeal coverage decisions.
      8) $5 billion in immediate federal support to affordable Coverage for the Uninsured with Pre-existing Conditions.
      9) $10 billion investment in Community Health Centers.
      10) Create immediate access to re-insurance for employer health plans providing coverage for early retirees.
      11) Made an $80 billion deal with the pharmaceutical industry to contribute to cut prescription drug costs for the nation's seniors reduce the size of the "donut hole" in the Medicare (Part D) Drug Benefit.
      12) Provides a $250 rebate to 750,000 Medicare Beneficiaries who reach the Part D coverage gap in 2010. As of March 22, 2011, 3.8 million beneficiaries had received a $250 check to close the coverage gap, according to an HHS report.
      13) Businesses with fewer than 50 employees will get tax credits covering up to 35% of employee premiums effective 2011 and a 50% tax credit effective 2013.
      14) Creates a state option to provide Medicaid coverage to childless adults with incomes up to 133% of the federal poverty level. By 2014, States are required to provide this coverage.
      15) Provides a 10% Medicare bonus payment for primary care services and also a 10% Medicare bonus payment to general surgeons practicing in health professional shortage areas.
      16) Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) requires that insurance companies spend at least 80 to 85 percent of the proportion of the premium dollars on clinical services. As an example, WellPoint's Anthem Blue Cross unit in California has reduced its proposed rate increase

      But you're concerned about having the "right" to choose to go to an emergency room if you get sick so the rest of us can pay for it. Fuck you.

      Obama's a disappointment for a lot of reasons. But taking away your "right" to leech off the rest of us by not having health insurance is not one of them. And the health care reform act is not one of them. I'd have preferred a single-payer system similar to the ones the rest of the world have, because it will cost less, but this one is a big improvement over what we had before.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    6. Re:Obama Brought back Jobs and Growth by hairyfeet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As a person with two nurses and a doctor in the family do you want to know the REAL reason our system is completely broken? You do? The answer is simple: we save a penny and spend a pound it is as simple as that. Let me give an example of one my mom had to work on...

      37 year old male, working poor, couldn't get a tooth extracted. Cost of the tooth? maybe $700 if he needs an oral surgeon. But to the working poor that may as well be $700,000 because both are out of reach, since they are living hand to mouth. Neither the state nor the fed will pay for preventive care like that. So what?

      Well instead you got to pay for the new valves for his heart and a month in the hospital getting antibiotics because the infected tooth spread infection into his bloodstream and it attacked his heart. It is actually quite common, the actor Andy Hallet died from it. Cost? I'd say around $300,000 easy.

      And THAT, that right there, is the problem. Instead of adopting a sane system where the poor could get preventive medicine we instead pay outrageous prices to take care of them when they are at death's door, when it costs CRAZY money to put them back on their feet. if either the state or the fed would have paid that $700 we wouldn't have had a $300,000 bill passed on to the government. Does the current system make ANY sense?

      As for TFA, meet the new boss, yada yada. That is why we need multiple parties here, because what we have is an "El Presidente" banana republic going on, where it doesn't matter which you vote for they BOTH want more power for themselves and less rights for you, they BOTH want to stuff their pockets and pay off their cronies. The ONLY difference between the two is which asses get kissed the most and neither give a shit about the country or the people.

      The Ds prefer the taste of big media and union ass, while the Rs prefer the corporate and MIC ass. That's it. Otherwise it is the same shit, different day. And if the Rs run anybody but Caribou Barbie they'll win by a landslide because so many are sick of Obama's bullshit.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  10. Re:Obama acomplishments by afidel · · Score: 3, Informative

    What war in Libya? We've basically done some live bombing practice and sent in a handful of trainers and some covert troops. We expended more resources arresting Noriega.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  11. Re:Obama acomplishments by nomadic · · Score: 3, Informative

    If anyone but Bush and maybe a handful of neocon politicians had been in office, we would not have gone to war in Iraq. It took active fraud and a bizarre and paranoid worldview to think that it was a good idea; 99% of Republicans and 100% of Democrats would have refrained from invading Iraq.

  12. Technological equivalency by Compaqt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If the people don't have the right to be secure in their papers and effects (by extension, computers and emails), what right does the government have (by extension) to
    -buy weapons systems that didn't exist when the Constitution was written?
    -set up a cyberspace command?
    -use electronic money?

    When interpreting the people's rights, it's always done to the letter. When interpreting the government's rights, it's done expansively. [/rant]

    --
    I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
  13. Re:Obama acomplishments by MBGMorden · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Anyone who thought those items were even slightly possible drank waaay too deeply from the ultra-liberal kool-aide.

    Delusional...

    Anyone who thinks them impossible has become to brainwashed by the political tendency (by both parties) to keep saying something until people believe it.

    --
    "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
  14. Re:Obama acomplishments by sqrt(2) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Left-wing die hards ARE the ones cursing him! Obama is not a leftist, he is a socially moderate pro-business Democrat. Look at his handouts to the media industry (appointments of industry insiders to high positions in his administration) and favorable treatment to business with tax (they practically let GE write their own tax code). Even the much derided "socialist" Obamacare was in actuality a massive government give away to insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Real socialized medicine reform wouldn't have allowed those two players to have a seat at the negotiating table, it's impossible to balance their interests (profits) with the idea of covering everyone because the people in most need of care are the least profitable to insure. He does no better on foreign policy. He hasn't closed Gitmo, has made no real progress divesting us in the Iraq or Afghanistan adventures, and has in fact added a third mid-East country to our list of active military engagements; Libya--although that is only in an air-war capacity, similar to America's involvement in the war in the Balkans under Clinton.

    I voted for him the first time. I wanted a real left-wing president to bring the US back on course after so many years of disastrous right-wing imperialist policies that nearly brought our economy to the point of utter collapse, increased inequality to points nearly as high as our nation has ever seen in its history, and squandered the good will of the world that we had just barely started to win back.

    Obama is NOT a socialist, and that's a shame, because that's what the US needed. It is what we still need.

    --
    If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
  15. Re:Obama acomplishments by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Unjustly, you mean by getting the consent and approval from congress

    Thanks for pointing that out. I neglected to do so in my posts on the matter. What do you suppose the reaction would have been from the left if Bush had launched the Iraq War without securing the AUMF? Think the 'I' word might have come into play a few times?

    One wonders if Obama thinks the UN outranks the US Congress in these matters. He refused to launch the war without getting permission from the UN but couldn't be bothered to do the same from the US Congress. You know, the folks represent the American people, control the purse strings of the Federal Government and whom are constitutionally empowered to declare war. Why would we do something silly like involve them in the decision making process?

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  16. Re:Obama acomplishments by nomadic · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not only that GWB has a MBA from Harvard. 0 has kept his records closed, why is that do you suppose? Don't the American people deserve to see the school accomplishments of the "smartest President ever"? What was his SAT/ACT score I wonder?

    He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.

  17. Re:Obama acomplishments by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wait. The U.S. has a Constitution?

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  18. Re:Obama acomplishments by ukemike · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Don't forget that instead of universal health care he got us a universal requirement to purchase private insurance.

    --
    -- QED
  19. Re:Obama acomplishments by SETIGuy · · Score: 3, Funny

    they'd have made it a jailable offense to not have a job.

    Nah, they'd have to feed you in jail. It's cheaper to let the jobless fend for themselves on the streets. The 1% can't see those streets from where they live.

  20. Re:Obama acomplishments by fred911 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We spend 100 million a week in Libya without any debate except to cut more social services and prohibit collective bargaining.

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  21. Re:Obama acomplishments by bmo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >Don't forget that instead of universal health care he got us a universal requirement to purchase private insurance.

    Which was a Republican Idea (TM).

    This is how it works:

    Republicans come up with something on their own.
    Democrats come up with something on their own.
    Republicans vehemently oppose the Democrats' ideas.
    Democrats cave, and adopt a Republican idea
    Republicans vehemently oppose the Democrats' Idea (formerly republican) because there are "points to score"
    Democrats get the formerly Republican idea through and signed and call it victory.
    Republicans wail and gnash their teeth calling Obama a Communist Nazi Jew (Go back to Canada) etc. for passing a Republican idea.

    This country is fucked.

    --
    BMO

  22. Re:Obama acomplishments by Shakrai · · Score: 4, Informative

    If it were McCain right now we'd already be rounding Arabs up into concentration camps (whoops "internment camps")

    I hate to break it to you but the only President that ever did that was a Democrat.

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  23. Re:Obama acomplishments by LordLimecat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not war! Kinetic military activity! And we're only providing our unique dictator-removal capabilities, not bombing!

    And didnt we have to invade a country to arrest Noriega?

  24. Re:Obama acomplishments by haruchai · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The real problem are the voters - how can they be so stupid? Much as I think the Republicans are venal, their ability to convince the sheeple to vote against their best interests is truly astonishing.

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  25. Re:Obama acomplishments by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 3, Insightful

    >Don't forget that instead of universal health care he got us a universal requirement to purchase private insurance.

    Which was a Republican Idea (TM).

    This is how it works:

    Republicans come up with something on their own.
    Democrats come up with something on their own.
    Republicans vehemently oppose the Democrats' ideas.
    Democrats cave, and adopt a Republican idea[snip]

    Actually, it was more like:
    Democrats strongly push single-payer socialized medicine.
    Conservative think tanks try to come up with a more palatable solution that focuses on individual responsibility so conservatives don't look like tone-deaf morons without a plan of their own, knowing full well that their "proposal" will never see the light of day with the Democrat stranglehold on Congress.

    At any rate, that was a long time ago. Things change. The Heritage papers weren't written by Constitutional scholars, they were written by policy wonks.

    The funny thing about this whole thing is if the Democrats weren't so chickenshit about creating a new tax, they could have done an end-run around the Constitutionality argument. Nobody denies that the federal government has the right to levy taxes, and nobody denies that the federal government can provide a service. So create a new tax called the ObamaCare MegaTax of 2011, and a new service called the ObamaCare Catastrophic Health Insurance Plan. Enroll every man, woman, and child in this new plan.

    There, done. Now everybody has some sort of minimal coverage. Let the free market handle any needs beyond that like the MediGap plans do today for Medicare.

    Jesus Christ, Democrats. Is it so hard to stay true to your Tax And Spend(TM) ideals? What the hell is in that 2,000 page monstrosity of a bill, anyway?

    --
    They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
  26. Re:Obama acomplishments by s4m7 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The concept of the individual health insurance mandate originated in 1989 at the conservative Heritage Foundation. In 1993, Republicans twice introduced health care bills that contained an individual health insurance mandate. Advocates for those bills included prominent Republicans who today oppose the mandate including Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Robert Bennett (R-UT), and Christopher Bond (R-MO). http://healthcarereform.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004182

    --
    This comment is fully compliant with RFC 527.
  27. Re:Obama acomplishments by lennier1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who really cares? It's the same corrupt pile of shit on both sides, just with a different label attached.

  28. Re:Obama acomplishments by Keen+Anthony · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually, and this is an area were too many people are absolutely clueless, the military incurs costs whether its engaged in a war or not. Obviously, the military doesn't sit conveniently in a cabinet until the president is ready to pop open the DVD case and load the game. Also, the assumption people make regarding Libya is that the choice we faced was either spend zero money dealign with the Libyan situation or spend a lot of money. I believe the President and his Chiefs have more and better information than any Slashdotter. The President's choice, for all any outsider knows, may have been the least expensive option. Finally, the fact that Libya is a third hot spot means nothing. You didn't bring that up, but others did. The US military is more than capable of being in three places at once. In fact, we're not just in three places. What the military cannot handle is a government shutdown that results in military families not getting the money they need to live on. Most of the military lives paycheck to paycheck in communities that have survived only because of military bases. Often these communities are part of the Republican base. A government shutdown will quickly kill local economies that rely on the military. Ironically, if Republicans give in to the desires of the Tea Party, much of the ordinary Republican base will be hurt.

  29. Because he ain't BUSH!!!! by Shivetya · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Really it seems to be what most of it turns into. Far too many were willing to take anything "but Bush"; and many true conservatives were in the camp of anyone but McCain yet we still had our senses and would never vote for Obama; that as soon as the press piled on no one else in the Democratic party had a chance. Sorry, but Hillary would have made a much better President. This guy really comes off as someone who could step outside in the rain and not decide that its raining.

    We have near record prices at the pump, we have very high unemployment, we have the Libyan issue, Gitmo, the Bush started wars, and we have deficit spending at a level I don't even think Bush would have tried. Yet what we don't have is a press willing to take Obama on. They seem to still be enamored with him. At least when we had Bush in office we could count on the press to constantly ride his ass over every little thing. While it got tiresome on some fronts it kept people informed as to what was going on and what was being done. Hell, where are all the Democrats screaming about gasoline prices now? Can you imagine the outrage if Bush had said "get used to it?"

    The last thing America needs is a President the press likes, the worst possible outcome is a President they are essentially in love with. Obama comes of as Bush Squared. Meaning, if it was bad under Bush it is just as bad under Obama if not worse. Hell, I think he managed to pick an AG worse than than Bush.

    With the Republicans in charge of Congress I was hoping that Obama would wake up and try to lead. Before the losses in 10 he was overly willing to allow Democratic leadership to run amok in Congress and lead on any idea he wanted. He would not make decisions, define the goal, or even try to compromise. As such we got abominations of bills and no clear leadership. We had a Congress which REFUSED to submit a budget for consideration simply because the Democratic leadership at the time did not want to deal with it during an election year and suddenly if you asked the press it is all the Republican's fault for not passing what should have been passed LAST YEAR under Pelosi.

    No, we need to get back to Presidents the press don't like. I know it sounds like a negative but the point is, the very people that many Americans need to provide them the truth about their government apparently need incentive to investigate it.

    This Presidency is more about Wall Street and big money than Bush ever was. There are rumors of a BILLION dollar reelection campaign. Tell me how that is representative of main street and the American people.

    As for accomplishments. I find them all neutered simply because of the deficit and the his lack of trying to fix it. We cannot tax our way out of it, we could take 100% of the earnings above 250k per year for those who earn it and still not reduce it by half. We simply spend too much and very few on either side of the aisle are even trying to do anything about it.

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.