Email and text privacy

(assignment developed by Bassma Zebib)

Please read these provisions of the Stored Communications Act: 18 U.S.C. 2701 and 18 U.S.C. 2702.

Then read, or skim, Orin Kerr, A User's Guide to the Stored Communications Act, and a Legislator's Guide to Amending it, 72 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1208 (2004).

Now read these related cases: Quon v. Arch Wireless, 529 F.3d 892 (9th Cir. 2008), and Flagg v. City of Detroit, 2008 WL 3895470 (E.D. Mich. Aug. 27, 2008).

For a little break during your reading, visit www.stayinvisible.com. Browse around the site and click on “Test your IP” and “Test your E-mail.” (This doesn't relate to the Stored Communications Act and CALEA issues this reading covers, but it's worth doing anyway.)

Now, please read the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, 47 U.S.C. 1002, and read how the F.C.C. has applied the CALEA statute to broadband and internet telephony in American Council on Education v. F.C.C., 451 F. 3d 226 (D.C. Cir. 2006).

Finally, read this FAQ on NSA spying.