The Stored Communications Act and Facebook

1656 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Outline of privacy and social media

The Stored Communications Act Title II of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, or the Stored Communications Act, falls short of the technological advances we have made in our society to date. Within its’ boundaries, the Stored Communications Act treats personal information, such as private messages, emails, and user information differently than physical documents stored in an individual’s home. In the previous assignment, I described the shortcomings of the SCA. Now, I will delve into what can be done to change this Act in order to make it congruent with present and future data use. This involves looking at how not only the Stored Communication’s act can be altered, but what policy changes should occur in the sector of social networks. Short Recap The Stored Communications Act falls short in many categories mainly because it is out of date. Firstly, the SCA allows for any government entity to access stored communications, meaning emails and private messages, six months after they have been opened. “A governmental entity may require the disclosure by a provider of electronic communications services of the content of a wire or electronic communication that has been in electronic storage in an electronic communications system for more than one hundred and eighty days by the means available under subsection (b) of this section.” Secondly, the Stored Communications Act does not provide full warrant protection of private messages or personal data. This information can be obtained from a government entity, like the NSA, merely by obtaining a subpoena. This means that private communications and personal data are treated as differently than if they were on paper and stored within your home. This particular section goes ... ... middle of paper ... ...ives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. . Kerr, Orin S. "A USER'S GUIDE TO THE STORED COMMUNICATIONS ACT - AND A LEGISLATOR'S GUIDE TO AMENDING IT." George Washington Law Review 72 (2004): n. pag. Print. Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee Cong. (March 19, 2013) (testimony of Acting Assistant Attorney General Elana Tyrangiel). Stefan Stieger, Christoph Burger, Manuel Bohn, and Martin Voracek. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. September 2013, 16(9): 629-634. Mundie, Craig. "Privacy Pragmatism: Focus on Data Use, Not Data Collection." Foreign Affairs Mar. 2014: n. pag. 5. Web.

Show More
Related

  • Unilateral Decision: The Naval Blockade on Cuba

    1134 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Prologue: Selected Articles." National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

  • Privacy In Peter Singer's Possible Man

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The standards of what we want to keep private and what we make public are constantly evolving. Over the course of Western history, we’ve developed a desire for more privacy, quite possibly as a status symbol…”(Singer) Technological change leads to new abuses, creating new challenges to security, but society adapts to those challenges. To meet the innate need for privacy, we learn what to reveal and where, and how to keep secret what we don't want to disclose. “Whether Facebook and similar sites are reflecting a change in social norms about privacy or are actually driving that change, that half a billion people are now on Facebook suggests that people believe the benefits of connecting with others, sharing information, networking, self-promoting, flirting, and bragging outweigh breaches of privacy that accompany such behaviours,”(Singer) This is obvious by the continuous and unceasing use of social media platforms, but what needs to be considered is that this information is being provided willingly. “More difficult questions arise when the loss of privacy is not in any sense a choice.”(Singer) When the choice to be anonymous it taken away through social media, the person loses the ability to keep their personal information

    Read More

  • The Court Of The Supreme Court

    2261 Words  | 5 Pages

    ... was not accepted by many of the Court Justices. One of the Concurring decisions was that because the information, which was acquired through the Stored Communications Act needed to be obtained with a warrant, the Stored Communications Act was Unconstitutional. This was argued because, for ISP’s to collect information about everyone that uses there services, they would have to present a warrant to everyone who they serve, and they didn 't yet have probable cause. The case ended in a decision that the government had infringed on Warshak’s 4th amendment rights, and that any obtaining of information through the Stored Communications Act (deemed legal) would have to be obtained with a warrant. This upheld Katz v. US to say that because Warshak used a private means of communication for his correspondence, a warrant must have been obtained to ask the ISP for the emails.

    Read More

  • The Patriot Ac Does NOT Violate Constitutional Rights

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shortly after the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks, the US congress enacted a law, commonly known as The Patriot Act. This law enlarges the power of government and administration allowing them to obtain the personal records of any person of suspect in hopes of preventing any future terrorist act. Many of its provisions were going to expire in 2005, but Congress passed another bill named “US PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act in 2006” to reauthorize those.

    Read More

  • In Praise of Big Brother: Why We Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Government Surveillance

    1896 Words  | 4 Pages

    Taylor, James Stacey. "In Praise of Big Brother: Why We Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Government Surveillance." Public Affairs Quarterly July 2005: 227-246.

    Read More

  • Privacy vs. Security

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ever since day one, people have been developing and creating all sorts of new methods and machines to help better everyday life in one way or another. Who can forget the invention of the ever-wondrous telephone? And we can’t forget how innovative and life-changing computers have been. However, while all machines have their positive uses, there can also be many negatives depending on how one uses said machines, wiretapping in on phone conversations, using spyware to quietly survey every keystroke and click one makes, and many other methods of unwanted snooping have arisen. As a result, laws have been made to make sure these negative uses are not taken advantage of by anyone. But because of how often technology changes, how can it be known that the laws made so long ago can still uphold proper justice? With the laws that are in place now, it’s a constant struggle to balance security with privacy. Privacy laws should be revised completely in order to create a better happy medium between security and privacy. A common misconception of most is that a happy medium of privacy and security is impossible to achieve. However, as well-said by Daniel Solove, “Protecting privacy doesn’t need to mean scuttling a security measure. Most people concerned about the privacy implications of government surveillance aren’t arguing for no[sic] surveillance and absolute privacy. They’d be fine giving up some privacy as long as appropriate controls, limitations, oversight and accountability mechanisms were in place.”(“5 Myths about Privacy”)

    Read More

  • Ethics of Surveillance

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    The world erupted in outrage following revelations by Edward Snowden regarding the extent of surveillance perform by the National Security Agency. Privacy becomes one of the hottest topic of 2013 and was chosen by the world’s most popular online dictionary, Dictionary.com, as the Word of the Year. However, the government is not the only one that conduct data gathering and surveillance. Employers often monitor their employees, and businesses collect data on theirs customer. The morality of these practices is a topic that generates heated debate.

    Read More

  • Privacy and Security Issues in Data Mining

    1885 Words  | 4 Pages

    [4] H. Nissenbaum. Toward an Approach to Privacy in Public: Challenges of Information Technology. Ethics & Behavior, 7(3): 207-220, 1997.

    Read More

  • Government Surveillance Pros And Cons

    858 Words  | 2 Pages

    Privacy is not just a fundamental right, it is also important to maintain a truly democratic society where all citizens are able to exist with relative comfort. Therefore, “[Monitoring citizens without their knowledge] is a major threat to democracies all around the world.” (William Binney.) This is a logical opinion because without freedom of expression and privacy, every dictatorship in history has implemented some form of surveillance upon its citizens as a method of control.

    Read More

  • Surveillance and Privacy Issues

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nearly every major international agreement on human rights protects the right of individuals to be free from unwarranted surveillance. This guarantee has trickled down into national constitutional or legal provisions, protecting the privacy of communications.

    Read More

  • Facebook: A Modern Privacy Invasion

    1221 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 21st century has brought a lot of modern ideas, innovations, and technology. One of these is social media. The invention of Facebook has completely changed the way we communicate with one another. Instant messaging, photo sharing, and joining online groups have created a way for families and friends to connect. Some argue that Facebook is the greatest invention however, while it is seemingly harmless, Facebook has created an invasion of privacy. The accessibility of Facebook and its widespread use has created privacy problems for users, teens, and interviewees by allowing easy control to viewers.

    Read More

  • Paraphrasing And Privacy

    2231 Words  | 5 Pages

    User Privacy is a sensitive topic at the moment. It is one of the most important factors a person should consider before they give their information away over the internet. Every click or selection you make online is being stored and permanently kept on record that includes anything you may have Googled, investigated or researched. Some people believe that user privacy is dead (Rambam 2011). More and more we are being encouraged to give away more information about ourselves online, and the greatest intrusion into our online activities comes from social networking sites. The lack of user privacy on social networking sites has led to dramatic changes in people’s lives such as targeting by the media and marketing researchers, the buying and selling of user information and other unethical forms of privacy invasion. Online activity is increasingly being used as e...

    Read More

  • The Erosion Of Privacy

    1208 Words  | 3 Pages

    In a world of Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube and OKCupid and Google and IPhones and Ipads and Kindles and all the other hundreds of sites and devices designed to garner personal information, data-mine your information, to better advertise, sell, inform, and connect you with the people or the places that you want to experience. The wonderful world of the Internet helps connect millions of people with millions of other people in milliseconds all day, every day. All the swapping and sharing of information create a world of transparency, deception, fraud, and identity confusion. Avatars, aliases, and profiles are the ways most people advertise their goods and services and themselves. With this consideration an erosion of privacy has changed our culture in ways that some predicted years ago and some that are new to our era. This paper will explore some primary regarding how technology causes the changes in privacy and what are the effects brought on by these changes.

    Read More

  • Lack of Internet Security and Privacy

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    Internet privacy and security has become the concern of many individuals throughout recent years. There are a very limited amount of laws that have been enacted to combat computer or cyber related crimes. This has become an issue because as the internet grows increasingly popular so does the criminal and immoral behavior that abounds on it. With these crimes gaining in impact, effectiveness, and frequency, there needs to be more repercussions for these crimes. The United States government needs to increase restrictions on the amount and type of data on individuals from the internet, to prevent the government from invading privacy of citizens and to prevent companies from storing browser histories of individuals, to then sell that information to ad agencies and other companies.

    Read More

  • Privacy Essay

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    In addition, a human right and fairly generous right to privacy are acknowledged in most international instruments such as Article 12 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (Wacks, 2010). There are ‘The Madrid Privacy Declaration’ which “is a substantial document that reaffirms international instruments for privacy protection, identifies new challenges, and call for concrete actions” (The Public Voice, n.d.) (see Appendix 1); and OECD Principles (see Appendix 2).

    Read More

More about The Stored Communications Act and Facebook

Open Document