The Norman Transcript

Opinion

Discussion

December 17, 2012

Technology changes; need for privacy doesn’t

The Norman Transcript

NORMAN — The way people communicate has changed dramatically in the digital age. The privacy protections people expect shouldn’t.

Most people would be surprised to know that law enforcement doesn’t need a search warrant signed by a judge to review a person’s emails or other electronic communications.

Under the 26-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a prosecutor need only file a subpoena in order to dig through people’s communications, if the files are more than six months old.

If you have letters, financial information or other communications on paper, filed in your desk drawer for six months — or years — you would reasonably expect they are not fair game for law enforcement without a search warrant.

Simply because the same information is sitting on servers at Google, Facebook or Internet providers shouldn’t make them more easily available to investigators.

Fortunately, the Senate Judiciary Committee is moving a bill to restore personal privacy protections.

Under the legislation, police would have to obtain a search warrant from a judge before they can review a person’s emails or other communications.

Law enforcement groups have resisted changing the law, saying it could harm criminal and national security investigations.

It would do nothing of the kind. Investigators would simply have to show a judge they have reasonable probable cause to believe someone has committed a crime and get a search warrant to investigate further.

And the law change would still allow law enforcement to collect other information with simply a subpoena signed by a prosecutor — such as obtaining routing data from third-party Internet providers that can identify the sender of an email and the location where the message was sent, without being able to read any of those emails.

When it reconvenes early next year, Congress should pass the legislation.

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, enacted in 1791, aimed to limit government intrusions and searches. How people generate and store their personal communications may have changed astonishingly since then.

But the protections afforded by the amendment shouldn’t change.

— The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.

For local news and more, subscribe to The Norman Transcript Smart Edition, or our print edition.

Text Only | Photo Reprints
Opinion
  • Republican Party has unmitigated gall

    Editor, The Transcript: When it comes to unmitigated gall, the Republican Party has no equal. Take the current Benghazi hearings, for example. This is nothing but a political charade aimed at the 2014 election and Hillary Clinton’s ...

    May 19, 2013

  • Airline changes coming

    In the airlines business, time is money. American Airlines wants to try and speed up its boarding process. Passengers who travel with only a personal item such as a purse or a brief case can now get on first....

    May 19, 2013

  • SEC should act on conflicts

    Money talks. In the continuing dispute over the all-too-cozy relationship between the people who create and sell financial products and the people who rate their risk, the money says: Shut up and let us do what we want....

    May 19, 2013

  • We all deserve better

    The tough treatment of the Tea (Taxed Enough Already) party and other conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service is being assailed by leaders of both political parties....

    May 19, 2013

  • John Tullius’ cartoon is wrong about education

    Editor, The Transcript: John Tullius’ last Saturday cartoon has jumped up and stepped right on my toes, along with, I suspect, the toes of teachers and school personnel all over town: “Growing up — we learned good morals, values and ...

    May 19, 2013

  • What hope for our humanity’s predicament?

    Editor, The Transcript: Well, what is it, this “predicament” of ours, our humanity’s? What’s behind or underneath this predicament, this predication, this saying before or is it a “before saying?” Ah, that might be getting closer to what ...

    May 19, 2013

  • Gas stations used to command loyalty

    More than 50 years ago, Ed Ruscha set off on a road trip from California to Oklahoma City and back. The young artist was driving to see his mother, who still lived in Oklahoma....

    May 19, 2013

  • Women can’t be at the front in Catholic church

    Editor, The Transcript: Kathryn Jean Lopez’s editorial, “Women to the front,” made me scratch my head. Since it was about the Catholic Church, she must know that Catholic women can’t be at the front. They cannot be priests, bishops or ...

    May 19, 2013

  • Tax plan gets projects going

    A deal to divert state use taxes to fund completion of the American Indian Cultural Center Museum in Oklahoma City and build the Museum of Popular Culture in Tulsa looks like a good way to get some momentum on both projects....

    May 18, 2013

  • Tax cuts help wealthy and harm schools

    Perhaps it’s old news by now, but I hope the controversy will live on....

    May 18, 2013