Email "in the cloud"

[TH64083]

If you use email that is web based (ie "in the cloud") like Gmail or Yahoo!, you may want to know about this.

I recently found out in a magazine article that the antiquated Electronics Communications Privacy Act of 1986 has a provision that makes any email residing on a server over 6 months to be considered abandoned, and is therefor accessible by authorities without a warrant. This covers both personal and corporate email accounts. So, if you or your business uses Google mail for example, any communication over 6 months old is available to law enforcement.

If you live in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio or Tennessee, then a ruling by the Sixth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals protects you. If you live in the states covered by the other 12 appellate circuits, then this ruling has no effect on you.

I know that unlawful activities documented in email by anyone reading this would never occur, but it never hurts to pass along tidbits when you find them. Happy shredding.

[incognito isis]

So what do say we do? Delete all the old emails?

[TH64083]

Originally Posted by incognito isis

So what do say we do? Delete all the old emails?

That would be for you to decide. One solution would be to use an email client like Thunderbird or Eudora, or Outlook. Each client has a setting to download the email and remove it from the server (or, leave it on the server). The downside of that means the email is no longer available on mobile devices over the web, because it now resides on the PC it was downloaded to.
Sooner or later, I would think the courts or congress would catch up to modern times and modern email usage (yeah, right). In 1986, no one thought there would be enough storage available to hang on to a novelty such as email for more than 6 months! Short sighted at best.

[KCQuestor]

Funny, but I'd think that in the olden days of limited space, any e-mail that was kept for more than six months should have been protected to a higher degree, the assumption being that only precious e-mails would be saved.