With technology being an interwoven part of society, why would anyone expect the government to not monitor internet use, e-mail, video conferences, SMS text messages and web surfing history? Before computers, the government monitored telephones. They still do today, but in different ways.
Microsoft is due credit for proactively tackling the constitutional issues, however it is possible they are doing this not to be "good guys", but to limit their liability by disclosing what information the government harvests from Microsoft customers.
A few years ago, I was involved with an organization www.PA-TEC.org, that was lobbying for better use of public funds for rail transit in Philadelphia. The group had sought numerous records from public agencies including a public transit operator and the Philadelphia area's metropolitan planning organization, DVRPC. The searches were a little more complicated than making photocopies, such as specific e-mail records. As it turned out, the more specific the requests were, the more the agencies complained about cost and their inability to produce the records. Amazing the games government plays to hide the truth.
The big elephant in the room that shows courts are understanding and using technology is the use of data from mobile devices (cell/smart phones) as evidence.
Look up how many criminal cases involve SMS text message transcripts. Many civil proceedings for divorce and child custody cases also now involve text message data.
My firm developed a service to convert text messages to transcripts here in the Philadelphia market several months ago, and the phone has been ringing off the hook ever since. Now, if only users could figure out that they shouldn't be deleting conversations that might be incriminating, they'd save themselves a ton of money.
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Don't be surprised
With technology being an interwoven part of society, why would anyone expect the government to not monitor internet use, e-mail, video conferences, SMS text messages and web surfing history? Before computers, the government monitored telephones. They still do today, but in different ways.
Microsoft is due credit for proactively tackling the constitutional issues, however it is possible they are doing this not to be "good guys", but to limit their liability by disclosing what information the government harvests from Microsoft customers.
Government is sneaky
A few years ago, I was involved with an organization www.PA-TEC.org, that was lobbying for better use of public funds for rail transit in Philadelphia. The group had sought numerous records from public agencies including a public transit operator and the Philadelphia area's metropolitan planning organization, DVRPC. The searches were a little more complicated than making photocopies, such as specific e-mail records. As it turned out, the more specific the requests were, the more the agencies complained about cost and their inability to produce the records. Amazing the games government plays to hide the truth.
Litigation, discovery & smart phones
The big elephant in the room that shows courts are understanding and using technology is the use of data from mobile devices (cell/smart phones) as evidence.
Look up how many criminal cases involve SMS text message transcripts. Many civil proceedings for divorce and child custody cases also now involve text message data.
My firm developed a service to convert text messages to transcripts here in the Philadelphia market several months ago, and the phone has been ringing off the hook ever since. Now, if only users could figure out that they shouldn't be deleting conversations that might be incriminating, they'd save themselves a ton of money.