4th Amendment privacy in text messages

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: eackerma () gmail com [eackerma () gmail com] On Behalf Of Ethan Ackerman [eackerma () u washington edu]
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 5:53 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: 4th Amendment privacy in text messages

Greetings Dave,
For IP if useful.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has just released an important
opinion finding that the 4th Amendment protects electronic text
messages against government searches - even when generic user policies
or login screens might say otherwise.

This means 3 different Circuit Courts have rejected the notion that
login banners or generic "this computer may be monitored" disclaimers
can trump the 4th Amendment.  Those courts have each said that it's
the actual on-the-ground practice, and not any legal disclaimers, that
matter.



In this case a Califormia police department requested records of all
the text messages an officer had sent on his work pager, and the
carrier turned them over in response to an email request. Some of the
texts, against department policy, were personal and explicit.

The court found that even though the department had a policy that
"reserves the right to monitor and log all activity," in practice it
didn't, and the officers knew it.  As a result, there was a legitimate
4th Amendment expectation of privacy.



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