Posted on 06/10/2015 6:07:01 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
Can you be slapped with obstruction of justice for wiping clean your browser history? Yep, says the Feds. If you are in the habit of clearing your online tracks – as many do – a federal law on the books since 2002, meant to apply legal pressure on corporations under investigation, can be rolled out and used as leverage to charge individuals. Think Enron as the target, but Joe Internet user in the scope. Writes AOL.com: “Many Internet users delete their browser history and clear their cache and cookies without thinking twice about it… But the recent Boston Marathon bombing trial has brought to light a law, ratified in 2002, that could land you with a federal charge of obstructing justice for — wait for it — clearing your browser history.” The bill, known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, was signed into law by President Bush shortly after the 2001 Enron scandal. The bill was crafted by former US Congressmen Michael Oxley (R-OH) and Paul Sarbanes (D-MD). As investor confidence was rattled by scandals that rocked hefty corporations like WorldCom, Enron and Tyco, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, currently administered by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, was meant to speak to corporate governance and accountability by legislating the storing of electronic records. But mixed into the language of the act, known as SOX, is this nugget, from Section 802 of the bill: Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11...
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Key part. The rest is just hyperventilating.
“with the intent to ....”
That language should make it pretty impossible to prosecute ordinary individuals who are clearing their history. The prosecutor would have to prove your intent is to thwart justice, rather than, say, privacy concerns. That’s going to be basically impossible unless you are stupid enough to admit that is why you did it.
The ISP has all the history.
Google has the history of all your searches.
The NSA has everything.
They don't have to tell you they're investigating, I believe. It's for you to find out later, after they bring charges for whatever, and grab your hard drive, and find out that you've flushed your history.
Just more charges to lard on the peasant. But NOT on our Masters - see H. Clinton & L. Lerner.
It's for charge-larding.
That’s why we have so many laws.
They’ll get you for 20 violations so you plea bargain to 3 or go bankrupt fighting them all.
Yeah, that scenario is probably buried somewhere in the Federalist Papers, or the Anti-Federalist Papers.
It's exactly as the Founders envisioned. Or not.
Actually, the Founders probably would have strung up more than a few prosecutors by now...
You make it sound like "peasant law " applies to the IRS...
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