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Excellent point. A thought experiment: the Founding Fathers specified that individuals' "papers" must be safe from casual government search. They did not say t

Excellent point. A thought experiment: the Founding Fathers specified that individuals' "papers" must be safe from casual government search. They did not say that by handing a sealed letter to a postman, I'm implicitly making it public. If someone had invented a machine to see through envelopes and read letters, they would not have approved of its warrant-less use. Why should email or phone calls be different? Technically, the communication leaves my control. Technically, there are ways to snoop on it. But the law concerns itself not with what is possible, but what is permissible. A machine that could see through envelopes wouldn't make letters a "broadcast" medium; only the intention of the sender to make something public could do that. Snooping on phone calls and emails without a warrant specifying which people's communications should be investigated and why is an obvious Fourth Amendment violation.

rayiner 13y ago
Something not being private doesn't mean its has to be public. It just means it has to be disclosed beyond your sphere of personal privacy. Actually, the 4th doesn't protect sealed letters you hand to just anyone, only USPS carriers. And not what's written on the outside (metadata). Also, in this hypothetical you didn't write the "paper" in question. A CDR isn't your data. Its verizon's data about you. So take away the special status of the USPS, and add in the fact that its verizon's tracking data for you, and its more like the government hitting up your local steamboat company for a list of all the shipments you sent through them. And I think that would not have required a warrant in 1810.
- nathan_long 13y ago
  I think you have a good point when it comes to metadata. But I'm not at all convinced that's all they're monitoring. Snowden is quoted as saying: >> “I, sitting at my desk, had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal e-mail,” he added. http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2013/06/10/on-first-glance-nsa-leaker-appears-a-patriot-not-a-traitor/ http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2013/06/10/on-first-glance-... The IRS reportedly thinks it has the authority to read the contents of emails, not just metadata: http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-national-security/new-documents-suggest-irs-reads-emails-without-warrant http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-national-sec... The NSA reportedly has fiber cable taps at AT&T: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70619 http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70619

rayiner 13y ago

Something not being private doesn't mean its has to be public. It just means it has to be disclosed beyond your sphere of personal privacy. Actually, the 4th doesn't protect sealed letters you hand to just anyone, only USPS carriers. And not what's written on the outside (metadata). Also, in this hypothetical you didn't write the "paper" in question. A CDR isn't your data. Its verizon's data about you. So take away the special status of the USPS, and add in the fact that its verizon's tracking data for you, and its more like the government hitting up your local steamboat company for a list of all the shipments you sent through them. And I think that would not have required a warrant in 1810.

nathan_long 13y ago
I think you have a good point when it comes to metadata. But I'm not at all convinced that's all they're monitoring. Snowden is quoted as saying: >> “I, sitting at my desk, had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal e-mail,” he added. http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2013/06/10/on-first-glance-nsa-leaker-appears-a-patriot-not-a-traitor/ http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2013/06/10/on-first-glance-... The IRS reportedly thinks it has the authority to read the contents of emails, not just metadata: http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-national-security/new-documents-suggest-irs-reads-emails-without-warrant http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-national-sec... The NSA reportedly has fiber cable taps at AT&T: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70619 http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70619