E-mail is not private, says US court

[Professur]

A US appeals court has ruled that the vice-president of an internet service provider cannot be charged with violating federal wiretapping laws for snooping on e-mail sent to his customers, a decision that will give ISPs and other e-mail providers free rein to spy on e-mail, privacy advocates said

Source



WTF!!!

 

[Gonz]

Are you surprised that it took this long to be admitted?

 

[MrBishop]

By ruling that an e-mail was in storage instead of transit when it stopped for a "millisecond" on Interloc's servers, the appeals court has opened up e-mail to easier spying by law enforcement or ISPs

It stopped being a message and became a 'stored file' on their server, during which time, they owned it.

Kevin Bankston, an EFF attorney and Equal Justice Works fellow. "This decision makes clear that the law has failed to adapt to the realities of internet communications and must be updated to protect online privacy."

No kidding the law needs to be updated. If this was the police, FBI, CIA, CSIS etc etc...then I could understand it...but this is some rich geek getting his jollies and making money from reading other people's private mail.

Also...precisely the reason why I have PGP on my system at home. I don't use it often, but it DOES have its uses. http://www.pgpi.org/