4 ms·
The interesting thing to me here is that the IRS is not claiming Google/Microsoft, it is claiming all email. Including that which is served by private servers t
by nmcfarl 14y ago
The interesting thing to me here is that the IRS is not claiming Google/Microsoft, it is claiming all email. Including that which is served by private servers that goes to other recipients on the same private servers.
The fact that you own the box that email was delivered to and that email never left that box has no bearing in the matter for the IRS. They still claim the right to inspect it, without a warrant.
- rayiner 14y agoYou don't own your gmail inbox, you don't own your twitter account, you don't own your facebook account. Google, Twitter, and Facebook own them. You don't even rent them. Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc, fully own them and fully control them at all times, retaining the right to do whatever they want with them at any time.
- pyre 14y agoYou just missed the point. The IRS is speaking to all email systems. If I have a private server in my private house, and I send another message to another user on the same server (i.e. local delivery only), then the IRS's claims still apply to that. I don't see how the Google/Twitter/Facebook come into play here.
- rsync 14y agoThe BIG difference is that you'll know about it, because the warrant will go to you. Not only will you know about it, but you can control the timeframe in which you respond as well as explore legal challenges and remedies. You will be in control of how things play out. The IRS isn't going to break into your mail server. People should really, really be running their own mail servers, and I suspect should be providing their own dialtone as well. The latter is certainly much more complicated and technical, but that level of control is a very nice thing to have.
- rayiner 14y agoI'm not sure how you can parse a phrase that starts "generally..." and read it as encompassing "all email systems." That's facially not what the IRS is saying. Google, Twitter, etc, come into play because they are the kinds of communications the IRS is referring to--electronic communications stored on servers controlled wholly by unrelated third parties.
- mcguire 14y ago"Including that [email] which is served by private servers that goes to other recipients on the same private servers." Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc., don't enter into the situation.