Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

IRS claims it can read your e-mail without a warrant (Communism is here!)
cnet ^ | 4/10/2013 | by Declan McCullagh

Posted on 04/10/2013 2:29:12 PM PDT by tobyhill

The Internal Revenue Service doesn't believe it needs a search warrant to read your e-mail.

Newly disclosed documents prepared by IRS lawyers says that Americans enjoy "generally no privacy" in their e-mail, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and similar online communications -- meaning that they can be perused without obtaining a search warrant signed by a judge.

That places the IRS at odds with a growing sentiment among many judges and legislators who believe that Americans' e-mail messages should be protected from warrantless search and seizure. They say e-mail should be protected by the same Fourth Amendment privacy standards that require search warrants for hard drives in someone's home, or a physical letter in a filing cabinet.

An IRS 2009 Search Warrant Handbook obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union argues that "emails and other transmissions generally lose their reasonable expectation of privacy and thus their Fourth Amendment protection once they have been sent from an individual's computer." The handbook was prepared by the Office of Chief Counsel for the Criminal Tax Division and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.cnet.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1984; 4thamendment; bigbrother; communism; email; govtabuse; irs; irsemail; irsfb; irssurveillance; nazistate; policestate; privacy; tyranny; waronliberty
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101 next last
To: tobyhill
An IRS 2009 Search Warrant Handbook . . . argues that "emails and other transmissions generally lose their reasonable expectation of privacy and thus their Fourth Amendment protection once they have been sent from an individual's computer."

No.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

While the Constitution is not a living document, the clear original intent is that letters require a warrant based on probable cause, and email is simply a letter that was not written on paper. A warrant is an absolute requirement here, and my level of disgust with the tyrant in our White House would hit the maximum possible level over this if it had not reached that level long ago. Obama is pure evil, and those like him who seek power in our government are not "public servants", they are America's enemies.

Note: My posts here are not private - not letters nor emails nor "papers" in the sense intended by Amendment IV - and they do not have the same level of protection. However, if the thugs in DC want my ip address and my identity, that is private and they need probable cause, and I have been very careful never to give them probable cause (nor would I say anything at all without a lengthy consultation with a lawyer and probably not even then if they came to "question" me based on an unlawful warrant).

21 posted on 04/10/2013 2:43:44 PM PDT by Pollster1 (A war can only be just if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tobyhill

“generally no privacy” in their e-mail, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and similar online communications”

I don’t care who comes out tomorrow and swears on a stack of Bibles that there IS privacy in those communications, I’ll still treat them as I do now - that they are at the very best ‘semi’ private. And I speak on them accordingly.


22 posted on 04/10/2013 2:43:50 PM PDT by I cannot think of a name
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jet Jaguar; NorwegianViking; ExTexasRedhead; HollyB; FromLori; EricTheRed_VocalMinority; ...

The list, Ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/


23 posted on 04/10/2013 2:43:52 PM PDT by Nachum (The Obama "List" at www.nachumlist.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: tobyhill

The IRS is not that smart. Come now the IRS is probably on Free Republic too. Gee Obama is so intelligent he is now reading my emails too. I hope so because i love to get on yahoo and respond to the idiots whom post so many times on the yahoo news story. I love to go back a report abuse when the call me a conservative whack job and other derogatory names not fit for FR.


24 posted on 04/10/2013 2:46:31 PM PDT by hondact200 (Candor dat viribos alas (sincerity gives wings to strength) and Nil desperandum (never despair))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tobyhill
"...Americans enjoy "generally no privacy" in their e-mail,..." So that means I can read email to and from the IRS, right? Somehow, I don't think they would buy into that premise. Goose. Gander. Tar. Feathers. TC
25 posted on 04/10/2013 2:47:02 PM PDT by Pentagon Leatherneck
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rennes Templar

Yes. It is no longer “yours”, it is property of he USPS.

According to that logic.

States do not like free speech. None ever have. Even the US had the Alien and Sedition acts shortly after independence.


26 posted on 04/10/2013 2:52:14 PM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000011 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01001100 01101001 01100101


27 posted on 04/10/2013 2:52:14 PM PDT by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.-Sarah Palin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: tobyhill

Congratulations. Finally Democrats are communists. We are controlled by the communists empire of King Obama and America is almost a total communists Nation. The Constitution and the rights are being trashed daily. Americans are so totally uninformed that as long as they have their games and perks they don’t give a shi!


28 posted on 04/10/2013 2:53:11 PM PDT by Logical me
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tobyhill

The federal bureaucrat bassturds are pushing us perilously close to armed insurrection.

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind!


29 posted on 04/10/2013 2:53:35 PM PDT by clee1 (We use 43 muscles to frown, 17 to smile, and 2 to pull a trigger. I'm lazy and I'm tired of smiling.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jack Hammer
The IRS - America’s answer to Hitler’s gestapo.

Add the EPA, and you got the tandem right.

30 posted on 04/10/2013 2:54:45 PM PDT by catfish1957 (My dream for hope and change is to see the punk POTUS in prison for treason)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: KC_Lion

It is not!


31 posted on 04/10/2013 2:56:33 PM PDT by Orangedog (An optimist is someone who tells you to 'cheer up' when things are going his way)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: nascarnation

I believe the labor force participation rate has gone down by a slightly greater percentage.


32 posted on 04/10/2013 2:57:13 PM PDT by EEGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: EEGator

It definitely has.
My comment was a /s/s/s/s/s/s


33 posted on 04/10/2013 2:58:54 PM PDT by nascarnation (Baraq's economic policy: trickle up poverty)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

1. Are you talking about purchases that exceed how much someone of your income level would make?
2. Are you claiming disability and talking about working at a day labor site?
3. Do you say you have no income but are dealing with lots of correspondence on your ebay sales?
4. Do you report very little income but have a flow of assignment notices from freelancing websites?


34 posted on 04/10/2013 2:59:28 PM PDT by tbw2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: GeronL

LOL!


35 posted on 04/10/2013 2:59:48 PM PDT by tbw2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: I cannot think of a name

This is all justification for the RIOT software that data mines your social media posts, online activity and other data. There’s no need to get a warrant to run RIOT if they say the data’s public domain.
http://tamarawilhite.hubpages.com/hub/What-is-Rapid-Information-Overlay-Technology-or-RIOT-Software


36 posted on 04/10/2013 3:01:11 PM PDT by tbw2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: nascarnation

I’m dense sometimes.


37 posted on 04/10/2013 3:02:42 PM PDT by EEGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: tbw2

They can ask. They cannot dig through my closet.


38 posted on 04/10/2013 3:06:05 PM PDT by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Orangedog
OH, I am afraid Orange Dog it is.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZIVmKOdrBk


39 posted on 04/10/2013 3:07:31 PM PDT by KC_Lion (Build the America you want to live in at your address, and keep looking up.-Sarah Palin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: tobyhill
... --- ...


40 posted on 04/10/2013 3:08:55 PM PDT by WVKayaker ("...once a bell is rung by a biased media, it's impossible to un-ring it."-Sarah Palin 11/7/12)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson