Mulva;1430789 wrote:Per US Constitution - "Secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects".
No difference in sending an email than making a phone call or sending a physical letter. It's just a different method of communication. If you want to monitor it, get probable cause that a crime has been committed. There doesn't seem to be anything grey about that. Treat citizens like citizens, not criminals. And if you think they are criminals, get probable cause (an extremely low standard of guilt) to secure a warrant. How hard is that, honestly?
It's innocent until proven guilty. Not monitor because you might be guilty.
Email is one thing. What sites you visit, even who Mulva is is definitely a gray area. That's information you are, technically, putting out in the public and information your service provider technically owns.
It really is more complicated than you acknowledge. You can't be recorded without your knowledge, but everyone knows digital comm is "recorded". That digital information is the property of your service provider, just like a sales receipt at your local Starbucks. Starbucks owns that info - all this says is they don't need a warrant if Starbucks wants to voluntarily turn over that info.
I don't see anything in "secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects" that would apply to a digital footprint. I don't dismiss the argument that you've voluntarily given up some expectation of privacy when you log onto the internet. Like I said, it's a tug of war between people wanting to expand their privacy bubble and the gubmit wanting to expand its monitoring net.