Is this the ultimate invasion of privacy?

[Rocky]

Invasion of Privacy

Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants

Proposed law scheduled for a vote next week originally increased Americans' e-mail privacy. Then law enforcement complained. Now it increases government access to e-mail and other digital files.

A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.

CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans' e-mail, is scheduled for next week.

Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge. (CNET obtained the revised draft from a source involved in the negotiations with Leahy.)

It's an abrupt departure from Leahy's earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The Vermont Democrat boasted last year that his bill "provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by... requiring that the government obtain a search warrant."

Leahy had planned a vote on an earlier version of his bill, designed to update a pair of 1980s-vintage surveillance laws, in late September. But after law enforcement groups including the National District Attorneys' Association and the National Sheriffs' Association organizations objected to the legislation and asked him to "reconsider acting" on it, Leahy pushed back the vote and reworked the bill as a package of amendments to be offered next Thursday. The package (PDF) is a substitute for H.R. 2471, which the House of Representatives already has approved.

Judges already have been wrestling with how to apply the Fourth Amendment to an always-on, always-connected society. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police needed a search warrant for GPS tracking of vehicles. Some courts have ruled that warrantless tracking of Americans' cell phones, another coalition concern, is unconstitutional.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies already must obtain warrants for e-mail in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, thanks to a ruling by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-575522...&tag=title

[Mr. Jacob]

I have learned a long time ago that privacy is just an illusion.

[Luckyyard309]

The ultimate invasion of privacy is a girl running into the restroom, holding her friend's borrowed cell phone over the top of the stall, and snapping a photo of you sitting on the toilet.

Then when you call the police, the judge decides it's impossible to convict anybody for it becuase the girl who owns the cell phone says she "can't remember" who borrowed her cell phone when the picture was taken. And of course, she's not responsible because she says she's not the one who took the photo.

YES, I SAW THIS HAPPEN IN A JUVENILE COURT.

[Jim]

"damn that George W Bush!"

[Itstartshere27]

Thank god I don't send emails lol. Of course it's an invasion of privacy, big government is alive and well.

[Steven]

Not the ultimate invasion of privacy, yet, but our proud gov't may be on the way by establishing legal precedents for unwarranted break-ins, searches and seizures that our Constitution expressly prohibits.
I know that many people have become bored and insensitive to those concerns because they've been voiced for so long, but is the only other alternative to become quiet with the hope that conservatives will bbe re-sensitized? That would be tantamount to a full retreat. May as well quit complaining and accept what others choose to give us.