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4th Amendment privacy in text messages
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:00:15 -0700
________________________________________ From: eackerma () gmail com [eackerma () gmail com] On Behalf Of Ethan Ackerman [eackerma () u washington edu] Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 5:53 PM To: David Farber Subject: 4th Amendment privacy in text messages Greetings Dave, For IP if useful. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has just released an important opinion finding that the 4th Amendment protects electronic text messages against government searches - even when generic user policies or login screens might say otherwise. This means 3 different Circuit Courts have rejected the notion that login banners or generic "this computer may be monitored" disclaimers can trump the 4th Amendment. Those courts have each said that it's the actual on-the-ground practice, and not any legal disclaimers, that matter. In this case a Califormia police department requested records of all the text messages an officer had sent on his work pager, and the carrier turned them over in response to an email request. Some of the texts, against department policy, were personal and explicit. The court found that even though the department had a policy that "reserves the right to monitor and log all activity," in practice it didn't, and the officers knew it. As a result, there was a legitimate 4th Amendment expectation of privacy. ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- 4th Amendment privacy in text messages David Farber (Jun 18)