Judge Orders Google To Turn Over Gmail Account To Feds
from the trust-is-fading... dept
For all of those worried about the Department of Justice forcing Google to turn over search data, it seems there's another case that may be even more interesting. A judge has ordered Google to comply with a subpoena to turn over someone's complete Gmail account records, including any deleted messages they still have on a server. This isn't surprising. The guy was charged with a crime by the FTC and eventually settled, but the FTC is trying to track down where he hid his assets. It's pretty standard for them to subpoena anyone who might have such info -- in this case Google, since the guy used Gmail. The guy tossed up some reasons why Google shouldn't turn over his Gmail account (revealing confidential info and attorney-client privileged communications, along with the idea that this was unfair since he'd have to pay his attorneys to sift through all the data as well, and that would cost too much). However, in the end, the judge didn't find any of his reasons very convincing. Not a huge surprise, but a reminder for those of you using your Gmail for criminal activity.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Makes sense
Before some of you rally about what they aren't going to do with results, I am sorry but I don't take the govt's word for it.
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Gmail specific?
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Doh...
Not a huge surprise, but a reminder for those of you using your Gmail for criminal activity.
IMHO, this should be "...using email for criminal activity."
Sorry for the double
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Like, umm... cheating spouses. Pretty easy for a spouse to guess the others hints for forgotten passwords.
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FTC Settled now unsettled
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#1 got it right...
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from the trust-is-fading... dept
Look for the next big wave in the online world to be privacy tools and hacks. Imagine full survice email (like Gmail) but no worry about anyone turning over your emails, and if the Gov did get them, they wouldent know it was you...
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at least we still have privacy
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Re: "It doesn't affect me because I don't commit c
"It doesn't affect me because I'm not Jewish, so why should I worry about it?"
If I have to explain why this logic is flawed (and ignorant) then you're already lost.
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Re: Re: "It doesn't affect me because I don't comm
Don't teach histroy in school and people don't know what went wrong and they will allow it again in other forms. Nothing from the Civil War back is taught in schools anymore (public gov't schools that is). It is not in my house so I do not concern myself with it. Well it is in everybody's house and will come knocking on your door in the middle of the night one of these days.
Thank you for your comment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
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Re: Re: "It doesn't affect me because I don't comm
I can remember a similar argument in Germany, between 1933 and 1943... "It doesn't affect me because I'm not Jewish, so why should I worry about it?" If I have to explain why this logic is flawed (and ignorant) then you're already lost.
Although Nazi references tend to get missused these days, your point is ON TARGET.
One might quote the famous poem, by Martin Niemöller.
"At first they came for the email....."
You get the idea.
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Re:
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Re: I don't care if I have no privacy?
I don't care if i have no privacy. I don't plan on doign any crime so if reading peoples email stops crime, go for it.
This is a very dangerous opinion to have. There is an inherent problem [and logical fallacy] inherent in that statement.
That is essentially akin to saying, "I've done nothing wrong, so it's fine with me if you [search my apartment/wiretap me/search my person/come into my home, etc.]
Just how when a police officer says, "Can I search your vehicle? If there's nothing for you to hide, then why are you objecting?"
Refusal to allow permission to search and seizure DOES NOT imply guilt. This is why we have the 4th Ammendment, and ideas such as "Innocent Until Proven Guilty."
I'm sure someone else would be happy to explain further why the statement "If you have nothing to hide, then why won't you let me look/search" is a logically fallacy.
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Solution
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More philosophy than anything else...
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Encryption
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Use your head
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Gmail and the government
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Re: Gmail and the government
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It amazes me that people actually still believe and say that. You ought to try thinking for yourself sometime, you might just learn something.
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Re: thinking for yourself
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Re: thinking for yourself
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Re: Thinking for yourself
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Re: I still think you are an idiot
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at least it was court-ordered
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anonymous web searches
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Are you sure?
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Re: Are you sure?
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Here's the problem...
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Where did it all begin?
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If you want...
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Why is my info being released?
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Re: Why is my info being released?
So calm down kiddo, don't worry, the Man isn't after your email yet. The Man is after his email. Why? Because he commit a crime. In fact, he's convicted of it. So why do they issue a subpoena? To find out what happened with the assets (read: money or stuff.) If you think this is illegal, then I suppose it's OK to steal from a bank and serve your time without having any of the funds returned? Again, a subpoena is what enables this to occur: the government compels evidence from another party.
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Hidden assets
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Wait until you can see an opening, then strike.
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Gubba Munt
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!
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Are they already watching?
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Re: Are they already watching?
Not as long as King Dubba the Curiously Stupid is doing all his treasonous best to protect us!
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Re: Are they already watching?
Living in New York and tracing a site inside New York still might mean your route to the site travels through Chicago or Washington first.
As for the rest.. Anyone as concerned as some of you appear to be about privacy shouldn't be using plain text emails anyway.
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Re: Re: Are they already watching?
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Re: Are they already watching?
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Re: Re: Are they already watching?
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Re: Are they already watching?
Let me put it this way: it just isn't feasible these days to cycle through all that traffic, when encryption is virtually free. Also, given the huge amount of spam (literal and figurative) that goes through these routing centers, do you think that it really provides them with much data? The NSA's datamining days are over... its datacenter has certainly outlived its purpose, as it used to be part of a very concerted and well thought out effort to defeat Soviet Union intelligence and computing programs. It did its job well, and kept them on their toes for many years. But then this was redirected to global terrorism and datamining, and it does this less effectively. The data is more widespread, there is even less knowledge of the credibility of various sources, and as opposed to the early 70's, everyone in the world can have highly secure encryption.
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There she goes!
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Re: Are they already watching?
This is the most logical, and most simple explanation. Occam's razor would tell us that there is no massive spying program going on between your ISP and the US Government, but rather, the ISP is freeing up bandwidth by using different routes to major sites to free up smaller lines with less bandwidth. If you consider how many billions of times google is accessed a day, it becomes pretty logical that your ISP would want to use as little bandwidth as possible on their site.
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ASSUME PRIVACY IS NON-EXISTENT
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Privacy Issues
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lol Noobs
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Govt GMail Intrusion
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