e-ignite

Star Tribune reports on a new lawsuit that’s making its way to court in the US that challenges the government’s right to read your email.? Under current law, the US authorities require a search warrant to read your postal mail, however they don’t need one if your email is stored on someone else’s computer.? Bear in mind that “Someone Else” could be Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail etc etc etc.? This lawsuit is being closely watched by several privacy groups who argue that email should be protected in the same way that snail mail is – a stance that I wholeheartedly agree with.? Email is increasing in use day by day, and with online shopping and banking becoming more and more commonplace, private data and personal details are being sent by email at an increasing rate.? There is therefore absolutely no reason for email not to be protected in law.

In the United States, mail fraud is a major offence and can lead to many years of jailtime for those that commit it, showing that communications by way of mail are taken very seriously.? It does not make any sense to me that email is not covered by either the same laws, or an appropriate alternative that is worded specifically for electronic communications.? The US government stated that “email users should not expect privacy when they allow an outside party to store their messages” – so does this mean that the US authorities are not allowed full access to your email if you run your own mail server at home?? I somehow doubt that.

The outcome of this lawsuit will certainly be interesting.? However, I suspect that the government’s legal team will shout “terrorism prevention” and be legally allowed to continue their free access of your emails.? But watch this space… I may be wrong.? It happened once before.