Ok...someone needs to talk me down from this. If true, people need to write, email, call whoever they can. This cannot ever be OK'd by our government if the 4th Amendment is worth a damn.
I just saw this story posted on wired.com:
http://www.wired.com/...
The Obama administration is urging Congress not to adopt legislation that would impose constitutional safeguards on Americans’ e-mail stored in the cloud.
As the law stands now, the authorities may obtain cloud e-mail without a warrant if it is older than 180 days, thanks to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act adopted in 1986. At that time, e-mail left on a third-party server for six months was considered to be abandoned, and thus enjoyed less privacy protection. However, the law demands warrants for the authorities to seize e-mail from a person’s hard drive.
A coalition of internet service providers and other groups, known as Digital Due Process, has lobbied for an update to the law to treat both cloud- and home-stored e-mail the same, and thus require a probable-cause warrant for access. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on that topic Tuesday.
This is only occurring because when the 1986 act was adopted, email was not usually stored online. Now it is quite common. And to ask people to stop doing that (and thus not having access to their own email unless they are in front of their own computer) nowadays is just ridiculous. This will hinder communication and business. Telling people they can either have easy access to their own email, secure in the knowledge that government isn't snooping without a warrant...or they can download it to their computer and access it later even if it is a burden.
What else in the "cloud" can the government access without a warrant?
I would not be surprised at all if a Bush or McCain administration tried to do this. I would even expect it. But from a Democratic Administration? One where the President is knowledgeable about Constitutional Law?
This sounds like the government does not want the burden of following the 4th Amendment and is trying to find a loophole that might be allowed in the letter of the law, but is 100% opposed to the spirit of the law. If this is allowed, all future administrations will have this same power. We need to be vigilant with safeguards as our technology changes.
So..am I reading this wrong? I am raging right now. Please talk me down if you can.