Do ISP contracts let them monitor email? [priv]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: July 13, 2004 1:03:36 AM EDT
To: politech () politechbot com
Subject: [Politech] Do ISP contracts let them monitor email? [priv]

[Folks might want to check, for example, Google's Gmail policy at  
gmail.com, which says "no human will read the content of your email in  
order to target such advertisements or other information without your  
consent... Google employees do not access the content of any mailboxes  
unless you specifically request them to do so (for example, if you are  
having technical difficulties accessing your account) or if required by  
law, to maintain our system, or to protect Google or the public."  
Perhaps other e-mail providers and ISPs aren't as pro-privacy as  
Google? --Declan]


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Do ISPs' Policies Allow Them to Monitor E-mail?
Date: Thu, 08 Jul 2004 10:10:08 -0400
From: Doug Isenberg <disenberg () gigalaw com>
To: declan () well com

Declan:

	First, congratulations on the new Politech website; it's very nice!   
(And,
I know it required a lot of work.)

	Next, I read your post and column on the U.S. v. Councilman decision  
from
the First Circuit, and your reference to state law is interesting.  You  
may
have read a New York Times article about the case, in which the reporter
wrote: "Because most major Internet providers have explicit policies
against reading their customers' e-mail messages, the ruling would seem  
to
have little effect on most people."

	I wanted to see whether this was really true, so I went looking for  
these
"explicit policies" at the big three ISPs in the United States -- AOL,  
MSN
and EarthLink -- and I have my doubts.  Read my findings in the  
GigaLaw.com
blog entry, "Do ISPs' Policies Allow Them to Monitor E-mail?" at
http://www.gigalaw.com/2004/07/do-isps-policies-allow-them-to- 
monitor.html

Doug Isenberg
Attorney at Law
Editor & Publisher, GigaLaw.com (http://www.GigaLaw.com)
// Get FREE daily technology law news @ http://www.GigaLaw.com/news //




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