Information Security News mailing list archives
Re: E-Mail Snooping Ruled Permissible
From: InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2004 04:32:00 -0500 (CDT)
Fowarded from: Thor <thor () hammerofgod com> I vehemently disagree... I can't imagine any scenario where anyone outside of a 3 letter agency would even begin to see this as a good thing. As an ISP, you need only stipulate your virus scans and spam blocks as part of the contractual agreement with your client- thus obtaining "consent" for those actions. The incredibly narrow interpretation of the term "in transit" by Kermit the Judge, even in light of acknowledging the nature of the required storage of electronic communications in some form, not only creates precedent for future atrocities in regard to the violation of our privacy in general, it grants specific sweeping powers to those who wish to bypass the spirit of the wiretap law. This a nothing but a Bad Thing (tm). t ----- Original Message ----- From: "InfoSec News" <isn () c4i org> To: <isn () attrition org> Sent: Friday, July 02, 2004 5:34 AM Subject: Re: [ISN] E-Mail Snooping Ruled Permissible
Forwarded from: Mark Hoffer <hoffer53 () hotmail com> Hello: Coming from the ISP side of things, this is a great sigh of relief. Before this ruling, some could have interpreted the law in a way that the ISP could not scan for viruses or block spam. I agree that email should not be snooped on, but every user should know that the privacy of an email is like that of a postcard. Now about this wiretap law - is it unlawful for me to use a packet sniffer to troubleshoot a customer's connection and to watch for malicious traffic on my network? -Mark Hoffer ----- Original Message ----- From: "InfoSec News" <isn () c4i org> To: <isn () attrition org> Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2004 7:33 AM Subject: [ISN] E-Mail Snooping Ruled PermissibleForwarded from: Marjorie Simmons <lawyer () carpereslegalis com> http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,64043,00.html By Kim Zetter June 30, 2004 E-mail privacy suffered a serious setback on Tuesday when a court of appeals ruled that an e-mail provider did not break the law in reading his customers' communications without their consent. The First Court of Appeals in Massachusetts ruled that Bradford C. Councilman did not violate criminal wiretap laws when he surreptitiously copied and read the mail of his customers in order to monitor their transactions. Councilman, owner of a website selling rare and out-of-print books, offered book dealer customers e-mail accounts through his site. But unknown to those customers, Councilman installed code that intercepted and copied any e-mail that came to them from his competitor, Amazon.com. Although Councilman did not prevent the mail from reaching recipients, he read thousands of copied messages in order to know what books customers were seeking and gain a commercial advantage over Amazon.
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Current thread:
- E-Mail Snooping Ruled Permissible InfoSec News (Jul 01)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: E-Mail Snooping Ruled Permissible InfoSec News (Jul 02)
- RE: E-Mail Snooping Ruled Permissible Cory D (Jul 06)
- Re: E-Mail Snooping Ruled Permissible InfoSec News (Jul 06)
- RE: E-Mail Snooping Ruled Permissible Denning, Dorothy USA (Jul 07)
- RE: E-Mail Snooping Ruled Permissible InfoSec News (Jul 08)
- RE: E-Mail Snooping Ruled Permissible Denning, Dorothy USA (Jul 09)