42. email

• When an individual's EMAIL cannot be examined?

  • According to the Electronic Communication Privacy Act (ECPA),

    • e-mails in transit cannot be examined in the absence of a search warrant (essentially a wiretap order)...

      ...unless there is one of a small set of exigent circumstances that provide an exception to the ECPA protections:

      • immediate danger to life

      • permission of one of the parties to the e-mail

  • E-mails that are on an e-mail server and have not yet been read by the intended recipient are still considered to be in transit

  • Once the e-mail has been opened, continued storage on the server is just storage and not a transport.

  • Stored e-mails on a server are not protected by the ECPA.