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Must Law Enforcement Get a Warrant to Obtain Stored Emails?

May 23, 2016

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When it comes to the privacy of telephone calls and written documents, U.S. law is clear: Government officials and agencies can’t access that communication without going before a judge and getting a search warrant based on probable cause.

Email, however, is a different story. Warrants are required for messages located on the computer of a sender or receiver but not for messages stored more than 180 days on the servers of Internet service providers or other third parties. Under the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission may be able to obtain those older messages with a subpoena or court order.

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