US Wants Courts to OK Warrantless Email Snooping

Erris writes "The Register is reporting that the US government is seeking unprecedented access to private communications between citizens. 'On October 8, 2007, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati granted the government's request for a full-panel hearing in United States v. Warshak case centering on the right of privacy for stored electronic communications. ... the position that the United States government is taking if accepted, may mean that the government can read anybody's email at any time without a warrant. The most distressing argument the government makes in the Warshak case is that the government need not follow the Fourth Amendment in reading emails sent by or through most commercial ISPs. The terms of service (TOS) of many ISPs permit those ISPs to monitor user activities to prevent fraud, enforce the TOS, or protect the ISP or others, or to comply with legal process. If you use an ISP and the ISP may monitor what you do, then you have waived any and all constitutional privacy rights in any communications or other use of the ISP.'"

"Think about it"

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Anytime someone tells you to "think about it" and then proceeds to explain how one little point can be logically followed to some outrageous conclusion it means that they have no real proof and are relying on your credulity to fill in the gaps in their logic.

Think about it.

Re:"Think about it"

[Anonymous Coward]

That's pretty obvious, if you think about it.

oblig xkcd

[RuBLed]

A'la'ih Do'neh'lini [xkcd.com]

No worries for me

[William Robinson]

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Re:Right..

[BadAnalogyGuy]

from: [e-mail]
to: [e-mail]
date: Nov 5, 2007 5:00 PM
subject: ne1 up 4 ultimate tonight?

<eom>

Re:Postcard/envelope analogy

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? I suggest you write "I'm gonna fly a plane into the Sears Tower" on a postcard and see how much hilarity ensues.

It would probably go unnoticed.

Ironically...

[mrjb]

...if they're going to try to monitor all email, they will have to weed through 95% of spam *first*.

Re:"Think about it"

[elmarkitse]

'Clearly,' you are onto something...

Re:"Land of the Free"

[Opportunist]

Really? Man, if Dick hears that he'll rotate in his grave. He could've gotten off the hook so easily.

Why didn't anyone tell him?

Re:Postcard/envelope analogy

[n3tcat]

He used up all his clever thoughts for this thread in the first post.

Re:Outrageous conclusion?

[munrom]

Why should you care if the government knows your username, unless you have something to hide:)

Bush's "farewell" press conference...

[TapeCutter]

..."Opps, pardon me!"

It's okay...

[etherlad]

I don't care if the Feds can read my email. I don't use Email anymore. I upgraded to Gmail. That's, like, two versions better, right? I hope so; I think I missed the release of Fmail.