eff.org: Is the SEC Obtaining Emails Without a Warrant?

eff.org: Is the SEC Obtaining Emails Without a Warrant?

Updates to the email privacy law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) are long overdue. It’s common sense that emails and other online private messages (like Twitter direct messages) are protected by the Fourth Amendment. But for a long time, the Department of Justice (DOJ) argued ECPA allowed it to circumvent the Fourth Amendment and access much of your email without a warrant. Thankfully, last year it finally gave up on that stance.

But now it appears that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the civil agency in charge of protecting investors and ensuring orderly markets, may be doing the same exact thing: it is trying to use ECPA to force service providers to hand over email without a warrant, in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment.