Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District
Issues
Technology
Inslee Praises Court Decision on E-Mail Privacy
11 August 2005
U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee said that a decision today by the full 1st District U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a positive sign for restoring the privacy of consumers' E-mail communications. In today's decision, the full court revived a case that contends that an internet service provider's interception of a customer's E-mail is a violation of federal wiretap laws.
Said Inslee, "The Court's decision today is welcome news for electronic privacy. We should not be lowering the bar when trying to protect consumers' electronic correspondence from illegal snooping. E-mails are a central part of American life and should not have weaker privacy standards than telephone conversations. As technology advances, Congress will need to look at modernizing privacy protections."
In June 2004, a three-judge appeals court panel in Boston ruled in the matter of U.S. v. Councilman that the federal wiretap law, which makes it a crime to intercept real-time communications, does not apply to the interception of E-mails in temporary storage. Because the internet service provider's (ISP) snooping software copied e-mails while they were in temporary, millisecond storage incidental to transmission, the Court found no "intercept" of communications occurred. In ruling this way, ISPs could read consumers' E-mails more freely, and law enforcement could abide by fewer privacy protections in order to intercept such communications. Today's decision by the full court reinstates the case and sends it back to the District Court.
Inslee and U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) had introduced the E-Mail Privacy Act of 2005 in response to the initial ruling. The legislation would restore the privacy of consumers' E-mail communications, and ensure that any real-time interception of these communications abides by the same privacy standards applied to telephone conversations. The Inslee-Cannon legislation clarifies that "intercepts" subject to the Wire Tap Act include searches that are functionally real-time, in-transit acquisitions, regardless of whether they occur in temporary storage. Inslee plans to continue to look at the best ways to modernize the E-Mail privacy laws since the differences in court rulings indicate that the issue is still ambiguous.
Click here to read the text of the E-Mail Privacy Act of 2005.