Document Type
Article
Abstract
The development of the Internet as a networked global communications medium involving many companies along a single transmission route, the expansion of in the range of transactions that occur “on-line,” and the increasing amount of information now stored with third party “Internet service providers” (ISPs) have produced a qualitative change in nature of communication, and accordingly, in the nature and amount of information that may be exposed to interception by the government. At the same time, modern electronic communications services that transmit e-mail, and the wide variety of attachments that may accompany them, are increasingly replacing the U.S. Postal Service as the preferred means of quick and efficient information delivery.
Formerly, individuals kept information in their homes and file cabinets where they were protected by a requirement that a warrant first be issued, based on probable cause, that particularly describes the items sought by the government. Today, much of that same information is stored in new locations on the Internet’s landscape, where they are protected only by a requirement that the government obtain a subpoena after a showing of specific and articulable facts that there are reasonable grounds to believe the information is relevant to an investigation. Guidelines issued by the Department of Justice in January 2001, provide that subpoenas—served on an ISP and not the customer whose communications will be searched—need not specify particulars of the items to be searched, such as the author or recipient of the messages sought or the subject matter of the communications. The subpoena need only note a span of time within which all such electronic information sent or received in an ISP customer’s account—including personal information not relevant or material to the investigation—is subject to exposure to the government.
In light of these developments, this Article examines statutes protecting citizens from “unreasonable searches and seizures” under the Fourth Amendment and the legal standards that have developed since America’s founding to protect the confidentiality of written communications in the face of demands for government access.
Recommended Citation
Paul Taylor,
The Scope of Government Access to Copies of Electronic Communications Stored with Internet Service Providers: A Review of Legal Standards,
6 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y
(2001).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/jtlp/vol6/iss2/1