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E-Mail Snooping Decision Has Wide Privacy Implications

Court rules in favor of defendant who copied customers' email without consent

According to a recent report byWired, a federal appeals court in Massachusetts recently ruled that Bradford C. Councilman, president of Interloc, a company that sold rare and out-of-print books to booksellers and provided customers with free e-mail accounts, did not break the law when he copied and read e-mail messages sent to customers through his server. Upholding a lower-court decision that the provider did not violate the Wiretap Act, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set a precedent for e-mail service providers to legally read e-mail that passes through their network.

The court ruled (PDF) that because the provider copied and read the mail after it was in the company's computer system, the provider did not intercept the mail in transit and, therefore, did not violate the Wiretap Act. The court's decision could have far-reaching effects on the privacy of digital communications, including stored voicemail messages.