Wednesday, April 10, 2013

IRS owns your Emails, and they can track you with GPS

The ACLU has released a not-very-comforting Freedom of Information Act request return from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) showing just how easy it is for the tax agency to read people's online communications without a court-issued warrant.  Basically, if they want to read your Emails, they can do it, no warrant, no judicial approval, they can just do it.

A 2010 presentation from the IRS Office of Chief Counsel stated that "4th Amendment Does Not Protect Emails Stored on Server" and that internet users should have "No Privacy Expectation." Under the current rules, if an email has been opened or if it's more than 180 days old, then the people who check whether you've been good or bad on your tax returns don't need a warrant for full access.
The same presentation states that agents are free to place GPS tracking devices on their targets without a warrant and that cars parked in a driveway are not covered by the Amendment's "right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures."

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