Raiding your Inbox

RAIDING YOUR INBOX
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] In the latest illustration of the Bush administration's disregard for your privacy, the Justice Department is trying to convince a panel of federal judges that the FBI should be free to read your e-mail without obtaining a warrant. It's not all your e-mail -- only messages left on a Web-based system such as Hotmail or on your Internet service provider's computers. A 1986 law forbids the interception and disclosure of e-mail and other online transmissions without a warrant. But there is an exception. If the messages are more than 180 days old, they can be obtained merely with a subpoena or a court order, which investigators can obtain more easily than a warrant. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals should rein in the feds and strike down the provisions of the law that are out of sync with the technological realities of the broadband era -- and the privacy expectations of Americans.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-ed-email01dec01,1,5868619.story?coll=la-news-a_section
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