The contacts list and IP address data of Jacob Applebaum, a WikiLeaks volunteer and developer for Tor was given to the U.S. government after they requested it using a secret court order enabled by a controversial 1986 law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, according to the Wall Street Journal. The law allows the government to demand information from ISPs not only without a warrant, but without ever notifying the user.
A no warrant or notification search order for an entire Gmail mailbox? Oh really? Neat and what else?
According to the company’s own Transparency Report, Google received 4,601 user data requests from the U.S. government in the second half of 2010, and it complied with 94% of them. Those requests include warrantless inquiries as well as those accompanied by a search warrant.
Yes – can we please rethink a law that was written in 1986 and update it to modern times before the government exploits the shit out of it any further.
Holy fascism batman.. Hey Google please do us all a favor and maybe grow some balls and stand up for our rights? Don’t be evil?
At least there’s plenty of other places to get email and it’s no longer the defacto way to communicate on the net.
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