Court rules no warrant necessary for FBI to see that you visit PAB 8 times a day*
Published by Kyso Kisaen July 8th, 2007 in TechnologyThe Ninth Circuit court of appeals has made a decision that has serious implications about your online privacy:
Federal agents do not need a search warrant to monitor a suspect’s computer use and determine the e-mail addresses and Web pages the suspect is contacting, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
…In Friday’s ruling, the court said computer users should know that they lose privacy protections with e-mail and Web site addresses when they are communicated to the company whose equipment carries the messages.
I see the analogy beteen emails and phone records. There’s a difference between the FBI knowing I called punkass marc and knowing what I said to punkass marc even without a warrant. Similarly, the FBI can know that I emailed him without actually being given the contents of the message. But the webpages part is a little different. Any legal minds care to comment?
*What? You don’t? *sob* I thought we meant something to each other!
I dunno. Let me ask the ladies over at barelylegallawyerbabes.com…ummmm, I mean Yahoo! Legal. Yeah. Crap, this is bad.
dammit, auguste, i was hoping that was a real website.
as far as this story goes… so someone answer me this: does the FBI need a warrant to monitor VOIP phone calls??
Last I read on /., but this was awhile back, VOIP was considered more internet-y than phone-y, so the internet rules apply more than the phone rules. But I haven’t actually looked into it in quite some time.
arghhh…. this is so fucking short-sighted and wrong. and enraging. with that logic, why shouldn’t all communication be subject to FBI search, at their sole discretion? what’s the legal difference b/w the “equipment that carries messages” over telephone lines and “equipment that carries messages” over the internet? why does one deserve privacy protection and the other doesn’t?
in 15 years (maybe less) phone lines will be completely obsolete. is the 9th circuit telling us that once they’re gone we pretty much need to resign ourselves to the fact that we can be spied upon whenever the FBI or CIA feel like it? are they just letting us know now so we can prepare for it later? it’s complete bullshit.