Face-off, Yahoo against government’s access to webmail

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» 16 April 2010

Face-off, Yahoo against government’s access to webmail

The web company, Yahoo!, is now preparing for the fight that will protect the online users from the illegal access of the US government on their webmail accounts.

The government of US is insisting that they should get copies of all the contents of a user’s e-mail. The records should also comprise of the read messages contained in the online user’s webmail account. And, at this time, Yahoo! is engaged in the federal court case in accordance to the government’s claims.

Law sides with individuals in need of protection

There is a law which safeguards the confidential messages of online users and this is called the US Stored Communications Act. It was stated in this regulation that there is a need for law enforcement agencies to get a hold of a search warrant that will allow their members to view messages and the likes stored in electronic data storages.

However, the government was able to challenge the web company’s argument by stressing on the fact that the messages are no longer guarded by the said law since the mails are already opened and read by the respective users.

Working together can solve privacy issues

There can possibly be noteworthy results from the on-going battle between the US government and Yahoo!. Various agencies are already supporting the web giant regarding its fight against the government’s request of obtaining confidential information found inside the webmail accounts.

Many organizations united with Yahoo! in its battle against the breach of the policy on data protection. Traditional advocacy groups like the Center for Democracy in Technology and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) joined hands with the company in their struggle against this form of violation of the user’s rights. Even Google, which has a long-existing competition with Yahoo, supported the idea of protecting the privacy of users.

Justice must be served to protect web users

According to the organizations, it is the court’s duty to safeguard the confidentiality of the online user’s. Thus, the legal department must sustain the law wherein police officers must first acquire a search warrant and should also state a plausible reason for it.

EFF believed that the US government is just looking for a way in order to bypass any constitutional protections that serve as hindrance to the police force from carrying out their search and capture of certain documents.

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