Business News: Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) Battles Government in Email Search without Warrant
The government agency used an argument that has already been rejected by the court in which they state once an email has been opened, it is no longer protected by the Stored Communications Act (SCA), which prohibits access to them without a warrant.
At this time Yahoo has asked a federal court to block the attempt to access the emails by the government without a search warrant. What’s at stake of course is if the government ever wins this battle, they can then pretty much do whatever they want in regard to private emails with impunity, and those providing the email services could then to nothing to stop them or protect their clients.
Yahoo has a number of allies in this case, including major competitor Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston said this about the attempt by the Department of Justice: “The government is trying to evade federal privacy law and the Constitution.
“The Fourth Amendment protects these stored emails, just like it does our private papers. We all have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of our email accounts, and the government should have to make a showing of probable cause to a judge before it rifles through our private communications.”
When Yahoo appears in a Denver court over the matter, they’re expected to argue that the Fourth Amendment and the Stored Communications Act require any government agency must get a search warrant before a company has to reveal the contents of the email.
It does make you wonder why the government doesn’t just go and get a warrant, even if the case is under seal. It implies the reasoning behind needing it is dubious and they probably wouldn’t receive permission from a judge.
They also could be continuing to push the envelope in regard to immediate access to the content of emails in hopes it’ll become a mute point and an accepted practice by the government. That’s something we all should hope never happens, if indeed that’s part of what is going here.
While anything can happen, it would be surprising if Yahoo were to lose this battle, as it would open a floodgate of government intrusion into private lives which we wouldn’t know where it would ultimately end up.
April 15, 2010