

Tell Congress: Don’t Let Our Right To Privacy Expire - yegg
http://www.vanishingrights.com/

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stephengillie
Why do courts feel justified in treating electronic messages differently than
messages inscribed on physical objects?

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jellicle
The short answer is that historically, we have treated documents in someone
else's possession differently than documents in your possession.

If the police are investigating X, searching his house requires a warrant.
However, going to his grocer and interrogating said grocer and getting records
from said grocer has been less protected in the past. The grocer isn't the
target of the investigation and so has less defense against being required to
divulge information about the target.

Problem now is that everything we do online has these intermediaries - other
entities who hold lots of data about us - involved, and so "attacking the
intermediary" has been exposed as a major privacy loophole.

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stephengillie
Is the postal service an intermediary? Why can't courts simply subpoena mail
to or from you which is en route?

