IRS claims it can read your e-mail without a warrant (Communism is here!)

cnet ^ | 4/10/2013 | by Declan McCullagh

[tobyhill]

The Internal Revenue Service doesn't believe it needs a search warrant to read your e-mail.

Newly disclosed documents prepared by IRS lawyers says that Americans enjoy "generally no privacy" in their e-mail, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and similar online communications -- meaning that they can be perused without obtaining a search warrant signed by a judge.

That places the IRS at odds with a growing sentiment among many judges and legislators who believe that Americans' e-mail messages should be protected from warrantless search and seizure. They say e-mail should be protected by the same Fourth Amendment privacy standards that require search warrants for hard drives in someone's home, or a physical letter in a filing cabinet.

An IRS 2009 Search Warrant Handbook obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union argues that "emails and other transmissions generally lose their reasonable expectation of privacy and thus their Fourth Amendment protection once they have been sent from an individual's computer." The handbook was prepared by the Office of Chief Counsel for the Criminal Tax Division and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

[GeronL]

What possible reason could the IRS hav to read anyone’s email?

[Rennes Templar]

“emails and other transmissions generally lose their reasonable expectation of privacy and thus their Fourth Amendment protection once they have been sent from an individual’s computer.”

I guess they can read postal mail also, once it leaves your home?

[Jack Hammer]

The IRS - America’s answer to Hitler’s gestapo.

[oldenuff2no]

Back to snail mail for anything important. Screw them.

[nascarnation]

What possible reason could the IRS hav to read anyone’s email?

Probably checking to make sure you have disclosed all the bad habits that could influence the cost of your new Obamcare health policy.

[tobyhill]

The IRS can control everyone’s ability to earn a living. It's Communism 101. Control people's lifestyle and you control their whole life.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Didn’t Obama double the IRS workforce?

[GeronL]

Time for someone to devise an encrypted mail service.

Dear IRS,
6564yrg47trht4yrbft43urhrtrt44737373bf vdbdhdeggeyry4u4db111hhdhfkjhdg

hgftrbd

*&^%$#@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nascarnation]

Didn’t Obama double the IRS workforce?

And some people wonder why the unemployment rate is going down? I've counseled several young people to head to DC and grab one of those Obamacare enforcer jobs.

[Jim Robinson]

The totalitarian IRS should be shut down!!

[LibWhacker]

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[tobyhill]

All for this reason.

[tobyhill]

It's another out of control Communist Bureaucracy.

[massgopguy]

When did the IRS get control of the internet?

[Army Air Corps]

ping.

[tobyhill]

Obviously in 2009 when they formed this opinion.

[Jim Robinson]

You got that right. If the congress wants to levy totalitarian taxes on the free citizens, they should try to collect them themselves. And they should bring their lunch. And a lantern. It’d be a long day.

[Candor7]

Encrypt everthing. Make em work for it.

[RIghtwardHo]

Well, Communism by any means, but all tyrannical forms of government. Can’t say I am the least bit surprised.