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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by innocent_bystander:
When I write a note on a piece of paper, fold it and stick it in an envelope then place it in a box on the street, I am transferring information (regardless of its content - legal or not). Many people, possibly hundreds, handle this 'packet' on its way to its destination.
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True enough. However, you were smart enough to put it in an envelope. Emails are more like postcards. Anyone can read them. With minimal effort, I could read at least my neighbor's emails, if not every email sent over the @home network in my section of town. It's so easy a child could do it. In fact, lots of children DO do it.
If I sent you a postcard that said "Meet me at the First National Bank at 12 noon for the Robbery", you'd better believe the cops would be within their rights to arrest me (and maybe you) for consipiracy.
If you encrypt it, then you've put it in an envelope, and the law is more likely to protect your right to privacy there, since a reasonable person could expect that communication to be private.
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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by innocent_bystander:
And yet the internet, with its packets of information are also open for abuse and you say that we should accept that the law does not protect us from those who would have a peek?
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I didn't say you should accept it ... I don't like it. Good news is, it's not a law, in the sense that it's not legislation. It is, however, law in the sense that this is how the courts are interpretting the Constitution with regard to the internet.
Another example: If i commit an illegal act in front of a window that faces the street, a cop walking by is within his rights to bust down the door and arrest me, and search the crime scene. Why? Because I had no reasonable expectation of privacy, since I made no effort to conceal my activity. "Reasonable expectation of privacy" is a legal term. Agree or disagree, that's the way the court rulings are going. It's important that people know this. Right now, it is absolutely legal for your ISP to sniff your internet packets. If you want to change it, contact your Congress person, or your Senator. I wouldn't expect much out of dubya.