ISP Access to Email Content Not an Invasion of Privacy

http://ow.ly/7zmxA

An article by Jonathan Bick posted on law.com on the LTN webpage.

This article discusses issues regarding email messages, and what legal access rights the ISP that was used to transmit the emails have to view the content of those messages.

The article states, "An internet service provider can legally search the email that it processes. ISPs may lawfully search the content of users' emails for many purposes, including assisting law enforcement, ensuring compliance with the ISP's terms-of-use agreement, and protecting the ISP from legal difficulties, to name a few. Such activities do not currently constitute an invasion of the email user's privacy."

The article further states, "Due to an increasing understanding of the internet and terms-of-use agreements, which specifically state that ISPs are allowed to read the email they process, internet users have no reasonable expectation of privacy for their email. Without an expectation of privacy, courts will not find such a right to such privacy."

The article cites some precedent cases that shed light on the right to privacy associated with emails, and the limitations that an ISP may be subject to with respect to accessing emails.  The article also touches on the different nature of the technology used by certain providers, such as Google's use of an "Interactive Message Access Protocol (IMAP) program" which enables them to store message content on internal servers.

The article provides some reasons for the need to allow ISP to access email content, one of which is to limit the spread of computer viruses.  The article further states, "In addition to contract and expectation-related immunities, ISPs in the United States enjoy freedom from liability for the actions of third parties who use their networks, because they are treated as telecommunication providers by the Communications Decency Act of 1996."

P.S.  There are other Federal Statutes, such as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and the Stored Communications Act that are not mentioned in this article, but impact expectations of privacy with respect to email communications. This article analyzes whether ISP's can access the information, these other statues impact what they are allowed to share with third parties, after they have accessed such email content.