On 12 June 2013 12:35, Edward Ned Harvey (lopser) <[email protected]>wrote:
> > From: Derek Balling [mailto:[email protected]] > > CAN they? Sure. Are they legally allowed to? ECPA would seem to say "no", > > that I do have an expectation of privacy. > Everyone knows, an unspecified and unknown number of employees and > partners have access to said communications. To cite an example from Irish case law on libel, if I write down that Person X molests children and send it in a sealed envelope by post to someone else, I cannot be sued for libel if that document is subsequently published by a member of the post office because I had a reasonable expectation of privacy. If I sent the same message by postcard, however, I could be sued because I didn't have that reasonable expectation. To say that a little bit of gum on a flap of paper is enough to make the difference between a libel lawsuit that could cost me my house and one that can't even be take against me sounds silly; but that doesn't make it any less true. If ECPA says that a facebook employee cannot look at a private communication sent via facebook, then legally it doesn't matter if it would be trivial to read or not, the expectation of privacy is all that counts and that expectation is not dependent on the technical aspects of the system but the laws governing the people who operate it. As to Snowden himself, I think the best summary was here when it was pointed out that what he did can be simultaneously unprofessional *and* ethically correct. As to the legality surrounding the intercepts, John Oliver might be a comedian but he summarised it perfectly on monday night - "It's not that we think you broke the law in doing this Mr.President, it's that we're surprised you didn't have to break laws to do this". (And as to the lack of shock in the general public, they've been inured to this whole idea by thirty-odd years of hollywood films, so you probably wouldn't see much shock, but ask them if they're comfortable with the idea and you'll get a more accurate read on things). -- Mark Dennehy
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