The Fourth Amendment and Email
The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution gives us protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. But what about a search of your email – is it afforded the same protection? Co-hosts and attorneys J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi welcome Orin S. Kerr , Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School and Jason Paroff Esq., Director of Computer Forensics Operations with the ESI Consulting practice at Kroll Ontrack to look at the recent opinion handed down by U.S. District Judge Mosman with respect to the Fourth Amendment and email along with our experts’ look at what can be retrieved and used in court when it comes to email.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:57 — 24.3MB)
First off, what about the fact that gmail, hotmail, yahoomail, etc, are essentially free services, while there are other e-mail clients that are paid for. Would that make a difference? Second, you reference the fact that the outside of an envelope is private while the inside is not. Well, metadata of electronic communications (that is, data about data) tells far far more about the package than does the outside of an envelope Finally, about the requirement that the government “give notice”; they have the e-mail address by default. How hard is it to send off an e-mail to the person whose e-mails are being copied?
Ok, I get the basics here, our email is now protected communication once again. Please explain about the implications of this ruling well. Such as, why should e-mail be treated any different than from regular snail mail? What business does bureaucrat has to do with my electronic communication? Thanks in advance!