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[previous article] [next article]Have you ever asked yourself the questions, "How private is electronic mail?" or, "Is electronic mail protected like postal mail?" Most people assume, through previous experience with postal mail, that electronic mail is protected in a similar manner. This is not true.
Electronic mail does not have the same protections as postal mail. When a sheet of paper is inside of a sealed envelope, it is protected by United States laws from anyone other than for whom it is intended. Electronic mail is completely different, and when protected, it is protected by different laws. The Office of Technology and Assessment provided a study concerning electronic mail and broke it into 5 stages based on the protections during each stage:
For each of the five stages, the differences between postal mail and electronic mail are discussed.
The difference between electronic mail and postal mail is that to obtain legal permission to open a sealed envelope which is addressed to someone else, one must request and be granted access from a court. With electronic files, the computer system administrators do not need to get express permission from the court. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 restricts access to a computer file to (a) persons granted access by the owner of the file, or (b) authorized personnel in charge of the computer system that have a justified reason for access.
The difference between electronic mail and postal mail at this stage is that there is more of a possibility of compromising the mail's integrity and privacy with electronic mail. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 states that the interception of messages sent over wire containing digital signals (a) needs a court order or (b) is allowed in very specific and limited situations by authorized personnel, such as the administrators of the computer systems that the mail is sent through to reach its destination. If the electronic mail were to be obtained, it could be read/modified and re-sent with very little detection, unlike postal mail when it is in transit. One solution, if the mail's integrity and privacy is important, is to encrypt your mail.
The difference at this stage is similar to stage 1. A file can legally only be accessed by (a) persons granted access by the owner of the file and (b) system administrators who have justified access. A sealed envelope can legally only be opened by the recipient or someone who has been granted access from a court of law.
There is no difference here in terms of postal mail or electronic mail. If a person were to obtain postal mail before it was inserted into an envelope, it is under no legal protection whatsoever. The same is true of electronic mail. If a hardcopy was obtained of the file to be mailed electronically, it is also under no legal protection.
The difference at this stage is that copies of postal mail are not retained with the Postal Service, unlike many computer systems that retain copies of electronic mail for administrative purposes. If a computer system retains a copy of the mail file, it is considered property of the system and the sender or recipient have no legal rights in terms of the file.
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