Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Stored Communications Act, part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act,
has significant privacy implications related to the collection of email messages. Under
this law, the government does not need a search warrant to obtain from an Internet ser-
vice provider email messages more than 180 days old. In other words, when a computer
user allows an Internet service provider to store his or her email messages, the user is
giving up the expectation of privacy of that information [35].
In the past it had been understood that the government needed a court order to
gain access to emails under 180 days old, but in 2010 the government asked Yahoo to
turn over emails under 180 days old that had already been read by the recipient [36].
Yahoo challenged this request in federal court, supported by Google, the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, and the Center for Democracy & Technology, and the government
withdrew its demand for the emails.
Nearly 50 companies and privacy rights organizations, including AOL, the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union, the American Library Association, AT&T, Consumer Action,
the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, and Microsoft, have
joined forces to form an organization called Digital Due Process, which is lobbying
Congress to update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. In the past Internet
service providers simply transmitted email messages from senders to recipients. Today
most Internet service providers supply convenient, long-term storage of their customers'
emails, and millions of customers take advantage of this service to hold their messages
indefinitely. With the advent of cloud computing, companies such as Amazon, Google,
and Microsoft are storing sensitive documents and other materials that in the past would
have been held on personal computers. The view of the Digital Due Process coalition is
that the government should not be able to obtain an email message, document, or photo
from an Internet or cloud service provider without a proper search warrant [37].
The implementation of digital phone networks interfered with the wiretapping ability of
the FBI and other organizations. In response to these technological changes, Congress
passed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA), also
known as the Digital Telephony Act. This law required that networking equipment used
by phone companies be designed or modified so that law enforcement agencies can trace
calls, listen in on telephone calls, and intercept email messages. CALEA thereby ensured
that court-ordered wiretapping would still be possible even as new digital technologies
were introduced.
CALEA left unanswered many important details about the kind of information the
FBI would be able to extract from digital phone calls. The precise requirements were to
be worked out between the FBI and industry representatives. The FBI asked for many
capabilities, including the ability to intercept digits typed by the caller after the phone
call was placed. This feature would let it catch credit card numbers and bank account
numbers, for example. In 1999 the FCC finally issued the guidelines, which included this
capability and five more requested by the FBI [38]. Privacy rights organizations argued
these capabilities went beyond the authorization of CALEA [39]. Telecommunications
