Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Warrants Not Needed By Government to Monitor E-Mail Addresses
A drug case that recently went before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Court in San Francisco, has resulted in a ruling (for the full text of the ruling: click here - PDF document) by the court that is going to have a profound legal impact on anyone using the Internet, including e-mail and web browsing.
The court in its ruling compared the fact the government can for example monitor the physical mail a person sends or receives and note the sender's and receiver's mailing address on the outside of a mailed envelope. In that action the government can monitor patterns of mail traffic without a search warrant, but must get one to open the envelope and read the contents. The court said the government can monitor in the same way the email address traffic (to and from) a persons email account, without a search warrant.
I'm a law abiding citizen and have nothing to hide from the U.S. Government. If asked, I would gladly share my email with the government. There is a proverb my grandparents and parents always mentioned that said: "He who has done nothing wrong, has nothing to fear from." However, I do like to maintain a bit of privacy in my e-mail communications, considering e-mail is an insecure method for receiving and sending information. As personal information security risks grow, I'd rather have my personal e-mails encrypted from prying eyes of potential data thieves.
Regardless of whether the government can read my email without a search warrant, as a consumer and information security professional, I try to do my part to protect my personal email. That's why I try to use encryption technologies to secure my e-mail communications. My personal encryption tool is PGP Desktop 9.6.2. Please forgive me as I'm not here to share a product endorsement. What I'm trying to share is that anyone can do something to protect the confidentiality of their online communications. I took action to try and protect my personal email communications. What have you done today to protect your e-mail communications?
Here are some solutions to encrypt your e-mail communications you may wish to explore:
- OpenPGP - www.openpgp.org
- PGP - www.pgp.com
- Hush Mail - www.hushmail.com
- ZixCorp - http://www.zixcorp.com/solutions/emailencryption.php
[Disclaimer: As of July 17, 2007, neither myself or my firm, The CSO Board LLC, have no conflict of interest (financial or other) with any of the above mentioned companies. We have no financial or other incentive to mention these companies or organizations.]
Although this court ruling changes the game a bit, so too must society adapt to the technological changes and challenges. I challenge you to do something today to protect the confidentiality and security of your online and e-mail communications.
For further reading:
Keep it Classified: E-mail Encryption for Small Business
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