Email privacy

Email privacy

Posted Nov 8, 2007 4:37 UTC (Thu) by flewellyn (subscriber, #5047)
Parent article: Email privacy

Perhaps the most chilling portion of the government's argument is that it didn't even need a subpoena; that the email could be introduced as evidence no matter how it was acquired. Their argument once again rests on the TOS that folks agree to with their email providers (ISPs or on-line services like GMail), which, because it gives the provider the right to look at the email, makes email inherently non-private. So the government can collect it in secret rooms at AT&T and use it as they see fit. That's not quite how they put it in their arguments, but that is the upshot.

Well, since the government under our current administration has repeatedly and fragrantly asserted that they are above the law, and will interpret it and enforce it when and how they see fit, without regard to what the law or the courts actually say, why is anybody surprised?

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it seems the safest way to store mail is on RNC computers which are evidently programmed to
lose both mail and backups upon being subpoenaed.

It WAS a typo.  Good heavens, but what a Freudian slip that was!