IRS Can Read Your Email Without Warrant 332
kodiaktau writes "The ACLU has issued a FOIA request to determine whether the IRS gets warrants before reading taxpayers' email. The request is based on the antiquated Electronic Communication Protection Act — federal agencies can and do request and read email that is over 180 days old. The IRS response can be found at the ACLU's website. The IRS asserts that it can and will continue to make warrantless requests to ISPs to track down tax evasion. Quoting: 'The documents the ACLU obtained make clear that, before Warshak, it was the policy of the IRS to read people’s email without getting a warrant. Not only that, but the IRS believed that the Fourth Amendment did not apply to email at all. A 2009 "Search Warrant Handbook" from the IRS Criminal Tax Division’s Office of Chief Counsel baldly asserts that "the Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server, because internet users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications." Again in 2010, a presentation by the IRS Office of Chief Counsel asserts that the "4th Amendment Does Not Protect Emails Stored on Server" and there is "No Privacy Expectation" in those emails.'"
I think they just invented... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I think they just invented... (Score:4, Funny)
Sadly, the decadent lifestyles often enjoyed by said windbags consumes a substantial quantity of energy, so the overall net production rate of politically powered enegy genration is going to be remarkably poor.
Supernatural patriarch electrodynamos, however, are clearly over unity.
Re:But govt email is classified (Score:4, Funny)
We don't have reasonable expectation of privacy to our electronic communications, but apparently the govt does. On top of that we pay for it.
Government animals are more equal than others. Questioning Big Brother is double-plus ungood. You are on the list. Say 'hello' to Winston for us when you join him..
Strat
No Worries (Score:4, Funny)
Biden says the chance of the U.S. Gov becoming oppressive is virtually nil.