Federal Judge Says Email Not Be Protected By 4th Amendment

A Federal judge in Oregon has ruled that the government doesn’t have to notify someone when they access and search a Web-based email account.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman writes in his opinion – “When a person uses the Internet, however, the user’s actions are no longer in his or her physical home; in fact he or she is not truly acting in private space at all. The user is generally accessing the Internet with a network account and computer storage owned by an ISP like Comcast or NetZero. All materials stored online, whether they are e-mails or remotely stored documents, are physically stored on servers owned by an ISP. When we send an e-mail or instant message from the comfort of our own homes to a friend across town the message travels from our computer to computers owned by a third party, the ISP, before being delivered to the intended recipient. Thus, ‘private’ information is actually being held by third-party private companies.”

Gives me a chill to think about all the client communications that many attorneys use email for these days. It also scares me to think that emails from your credit card companies, banks, even your grandmother could be read by the government without you knowing about it.