How long are emails stored on the server?

Did you know a 1986 law lets the Feds read emails that have been stored on a server for at least six months without a warrant?

• Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/when-can-the-government-read-your-email-2013-6#ixzz2Va4TSCxQ Here's the relevant text of the law: A governmental entity may require the disclosure by a provider of electronic communications services of the contents 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. In May, the ACLU got its hands on the government's justification for using this law to gather six-month-old emails. Here's the justification from the 2012 Version of FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, which the ACLU got through a FOIA request: In enacting the ECPA, Congress concluded that customers may not retain a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in information sent to network providers. . . [I]f the contents of an unopened message are kept beyond six months or stored on behalf of the customer after the e-mail has been received or opened, it should be treated the same as a business record in the hands of a third party, such as an accountant or attorney. In that case, the government may subpoena the records from the third party without running afoul of either the Fourth or Fifth Amendment. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/when-can-the-government-read-your-email-2013-6#ixzz2Va4pl0JF Here's the relevant text of the law: A governmental entity may require the disclosure by a provider of electronic communications services of the contents 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. In May, the ACLU got its hands on the government's justification for using this law to gather six-month-old emails. Here's the justification from the 2012 Version of FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, which the

• Answer:

  "Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual." -Thomas Jefferson Of course this is very old news that needs CONSTANT re-posting. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/how-long-do-wireless-carriers-keep-your-data-120367 The sick part of all of this is they make the consumer pay for the cost of the stored data.