Does the Government Want to Read Your Texts and Emails?

Does the Government Want to Read Your Texts and Emails? » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union "Last week the Justice Department squandered an opportunity to reassure Americans that as technology advances our civil liberties will not be left behind. The Justice Department was called before Congress to say whether it should be permitted to read people's email, text messages and other electronic communications without a probable cause warrant — that is, without a judicial determination that it has a good reason to believe a search will turn up evidence of a crime. The clear answer to this question should have been 'no.' After all, a warrant has been required for postal mail since at least the 1870s and for telephone conversations since the 1960s. Why shouldn't our email receive the same protection?"

"The main law protecting the privacy of our communications, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, hasn't been updated since 1986. That's before the Web was invented. It's time for Congress to update the law to forbid reading people's private electronic communications without a warrant and probable cause. And the courts should hold that a warrant is required under the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures of our personal papers and effects.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of what is at stake. Americans use electronic forms of communication for virtually every type of private exchange, from sharing personal advice and sending love letters to discussing medical ailments and conveying confidential business information. Electronic communications are not just augmenting postal mail and the telephone, they are replacing them. Nearly all Americans on the Internet send or read email and almost half send instant messages. Moreover, nearly three-quarters of Americans with cell phones use them to send text messages. Meanwhile, postal mail volume has plummeted so dramatically over the last couple of years that the U.S. Postal Service has been lobbying hard to eliminate Saturday delivery."