"Judge Says Search Warrants for E-mails Must Be ‘Limited’"

[TopWargamer]

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/judge-says-search-warrants-for-e-mails-must-be-limited/?_r=0

 

Can law enforcement obtain a search warrant to dig through a vast trove of e-mails, instant messages and chat logs because they have reasonable suspicion that the owners of those accounts robbed computer equipment from a private company?

 

No, according to a ruling by a federal judge in Kansas earlier this week.

 

The case is significant in that it limits what constitutes unreasonable search and seizure, as protected by the Fourth Amendment, in the age of big data. The magistrate judge, David J. Waxse, denied the government’s search warrant requests on the grounds that it has to be particular and “reasonable in nature of breadth.”

 

Good, I'm glad that the judge ruled this. It makes no sense for anybody to be looking through my email for no reason anyways. What's your take on this? 

[Anult]

Good. Looking through emails over one word is the digital equivalent of a postman looking through your mail because the address was from Afghanistan.

[Beskamir]

Good. Looking through emails over one word is the digital equivalent of a postman looking through your mail because the address was from Afghanistan.

The difference is that you would likely realize someone opened your mail. With digital mail there isn't (to my knowledge) a way of knowing if someone (other than the person you intend to read the email) checked your mail.

[Ethnod]

about freakin time

[LonliestofAll]

Good, don't have to worry about the NSA thinking I'm a terrorist because i subscribe to gun companies emails.

[Kamil]

It's great that a judge had to go to the federal government and say "Your requests have to be reasonable".