Court Rules Email Providers can Spy
Ruling in U.S. v. Councilman, the court held that it was not a violation of criminal wiretap laws for an email service provider to monitor the content of users’ incoming messages without their knowledge or consent. The defendant, the seller of rare and used books who offered his customers email accounts, set up a system whereby he received a copy of any email messages they received from the competition — Amazon.com. As the court itself admitted, “it may well be that the protections of the Wiretap Act have been eviscerated as technology advances.”