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Jul. 2nd, 2004 08:16 amIntercepting E-Mail
When you click on "send" to deliver that e-mail note to your lover, mother or boss, you realize that you are not communicating directly with that person. As you well know, you have stored the e-mail on the computer of your Internet service provider, which, as you also know, may read, copy and use the note for its own purposes before sending it on.
What, you didn't know all this? Sounds ludicrous? We would have thought so, too, but a federal appeals court recently ruled that companies providing e-mail services could read clients' e-mail notes and use them as they wish. Part of its rationale was that none of this would shock you because you have never expected much online privacy.
( Read more... )
These laws were drafted before e-mail emerged as a form of mass communication, so there is some ambiguity in how to apply them. But as the dissenting judge on the appellate panel noted, his two colleagues interpreted the wiretap statute far too narrowly. What's more, their analysis was predicated on the bizarre notion that our e-mail notes are not in transit once we send them, but in storage with an intermediary. The same logic would suggest that the postal service can read your letters while they are in "storage."
Americans' right to privacy will be seriously eroded if e-mail is not protected by wiretap laws. The implications of this erosion extend beyond the commercial realm. The government will also find it easier to read your e-mail if it does not have to get a wiretap order to do so. Congress ought to update the law to make it clear that e-mail is entitled to the same protection as a phone call.
When you click on "send" to deliver that e-mail note to your lover, mother or boss, you realize that you are not communicating directly with that person. As you well know, you have stored the e-mail on the computer of your Internet service provider, which, as you also know, may read, copy and use the note for its own purposes before sending it on.
What, you didn't know all this? Sounds ludicrous? We would have thought so, too, but a federal appeals court recently ruled that companies providing e-mail services could read clients' e-mail notes and use them as they wish. Part of its rationale was that none of this would shock you because you have never expected much online privacy.
( Read more... )
These laws were drafted before e-mail emerged as a form of mass communication, so there is some ambiguity in how to apply them. But as the dissenting judge on the appellate panel noted, his two colleagues interpreted the wiretap statute far too narrowly. What's more, their analysis was predicated on the bizarre notion that our e-mail notes are not in transit once we send them, but in storage with an intermediary. The same logic would suggest that the postal service can read your letters while they are in "storage."
Americans' right to privacy will be seriously eroded if e-mail is not protected by wiretap laws. The implications of this erosion extend beyond the commercial realm. The government will also find it easier to read your e-mail if it does not have to get a wiretap order to do so. Congress ought to update the law to make it clear that e-mail is entitled to the same protection as a phone call.