Are the FBI and IRS Secretly Reading Your Email Without a Warrant?

Are the FBI and IRS Secretly Reading Your Email Without a Warrant?


The American Civil Liberties Union has obtained documents revealing that the FBI and IRS may be reading emails and other electronic communications of U.S. citizens without obtaining a warrant. This comes just as reports have emerged that the Obama administration is considering approving an overhaul of government surveillance of the Internet. The New York Times reported the new rules would make it easier to wiretap users of web services such as instant messaging. "The FBI wants to be able to intercept every kind of possible communication," says attorney Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU's Speech Privacy and Technology Project. "The FBI basically wants to require all of these companies to rewrite their code in order to enable more government surveillance. ... And in order to accomplish that, they would make the whole internet less secure."