

Judge Says Search Warrants for E-mails Must Be ‘Limited’ - kanamekun
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/judge-says-search-warrants-for-e-mails-must-be-limited/

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hga
A decision going straight to the end of the 4th Amendment: " _... and no
Warrants shall issue [without] particularly describing the place to be
searched, and the persons or things to be seized._ "

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nanodeath
This amused me:

"That is to say, use data-mining techniques to not rummage through
everything."

Data mining basically /is/ rummaging through everything.

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meowface
Well, the idea is that the computer would do the rummaging and the human
viewers would only see the things of relevance.

It's debatable, I guess, if there is any constitutional violation if a machine
performs an unauthorized yet unbiased search of your property. But I think
most could agree it's better than a human doing it all themselves.

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webreac
Do you accept that a robot performs a search of your house without a warrant
because a robot is "unbiased" ?

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azernik
No, the point is that the judge determines the precise programming of the
robot, and requires that it be programmed to only retrieve certain types of
things (e-mails containing certain keywords, in this case).

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webreac
Do you trust a program to have no bugs ;-)

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azernik
Never :)

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angersock
_" He suggested that the search order be limited to certain keywords or that
an independent vendor be asked to automate the process of finding relevant
material. "_

Not sure that this is great, but baby steps.

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walid
An important step would be to limit the time frame of emails covered by the
warrant. I dissected the article hoping this would be mentioned but it wasn't.

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chacham15
There are many more limiting factors that can be applied: the sender/recipient
being a critical one for me. Why should the government get access to all the
emails you send your significant other? In some states there are even laws
against that that such a blanket order would circumvent. If the government
thinks that he was using email to facilitate the transfer, it should name the
parties and their emails and get only the emails between those two parties.

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frank_boyd
Frank Boyd Says Fibre Cable Tapping Must Be ‘Limited’

He Also Says It's About Mass Surveillance, Not A Specific Technology

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miguelrochefort
Who cares about what a judge says? It's just a person with a hammer and a
robe.

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afarrell
And who has made it their profession to study the principles of justice, how
they are reflected in the law, and what the law means. It doesn't mean they're
right, but it probably means their opinion is worth reading.

