How many emails do you get in one day? What’s in them? .Do some of them concern things you’d rather others did not know? Do some of them contain information you’d like to remain just between you and the other correspondent? Yes? To both? You might want to sit down and take a breath or two. A U.S. Court of appeals has ruled that your ISP has the right to read your email.
The court ruled that because e-mail is stored, even momentarily, in computers before it is routed to recipients, it is not subject to laws that apply to eavesdropping of telephone calls, which are continuously in transit. As a result, the majority said, companies or employers that own the computers before they are received by customers.
Yeah, you heard right. It’s slight consolation that at least some of the major companies that provide email service claim to not read customers’ emails as a matter of policy.
Large companies that dominate e-mail services were quick to disclaim any desire to read their customers’ e-mail. America Online, Microsoft Corp., EarthLink Inc., Comcast Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have policies governing their terms of service that generally state that they do not read customers’ mail or disclose personal information unless required by law enforcement agencies.
Like I said, it’s only mildly reassuring, especially the bit about “unless required by law enforcement agencies.” In a post 9/11 world, where the “PATRIOT Act” is law, I don’t think it’s far fetched to wonder if “law enforcement” could sucessfully argue the need to intercept and read those emails you get from, say, your local anti-war group. In fact, given that, maybe you should think twice before joining and signing up for that listserve.
Maybe I’m being a little alarmist, but it seems a little alarming to me
I wonder what all the anti-Gmail Nazis will say about this? They were so sure that Gmail was a violation of privacy.
it seems alarming to me too. There have been a lot of ‘little’ things like this in the last couple years that in and of themselves seem just mildly alarming, but together are becoming very alarming.
This election year seems SOOO pivotal!