Government takes advantage of outdated privacy laws.
For several years now, the Internal Revenue Service has been telling its agents that it has the right to read people’s private emails and check out their Facebook postings, all without having any probable cause that their targets have done anything wrong and without obtaining warrants.
The sad news is, the IRS might be right. According to what pretty much everyone agrees is a ridiculously outdated law, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) states that looking at opened email and email older than six months does not require a warrant, while unopened email and email less than six months old does. But in 1986 when this act became law, the average U.S. citizen didn’t even use email!
Congress has taken some steps to update this act, but the effort is not going quickly enough for Colorado Democratic Senator Mark Udall and others. Referring to the ECPA and the IRS’ tactics, Udall said, “This is an affront, not only to our system of checks and balances, but also to our fundamental right of privacy…I urge the IRS to reconsider its overreach.”
Fox News exposed this in an article titled, “IRS Tells Agents It Can Snoop on Emails Without a Warrant, Internal Documents Show.” Of course, the IRS is just one of the government agencies taking advantage of this outdated law.
Does it make sense to you that a Congressional act dealing with Internet privacy should be 27 years old, especially when the volume of online communications has grown so much through the years? Do you believe that people’s email communications deserve the same amount of legal privacy that a hand-written letter or a phone conversation would? Chime in on this!
And you thought the Fourth Amendment guaranteed: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Check out this article that shows how cash, cars and even homes and businesses are being confiscated every day, in violation of the 4th Amendment!
http://watchdogwire.com/nevada/2014/09/08/opinion-law-enforcement-civil-forfeitures-seize-cars-cash-homes-in-violation-of-4th-amendment/
Atrocious!! It is WAY past time for outdated laws to be replaced. Shades of “1984” and “Big Brother”!
Tyranny,I say. Let’s find a land take the basic Constitutional laws that means what it says.No lawyer’s interpretation and run from the king by mass immigration and leave this behind. They will turn on each other . Real fireworks for our fourth of July! I declare Jabez Prayer in the name of Jesus.PATRIOT I AM.
A consumption tax and eliminate the Fascist arm of government known as the IRS.
Since Budget drama will be coming soon brought by the political class cabal know this before the drama begins.
The Day the United States Defaulted on Treasury Bills
http://dmarron.com/2011/05/26/the-day-the-united-states-defaulted-on-treasury-bills/
I am still trying to find the IRS listed in any gov documents stating they are an agency or bureau of the fed gov. I have however found court cases and Congressional documents stating that the IRS is a PRIVATE collection agency located/headquartered in Porto Rico. Hmm can you say illegal and domestic terr or ists, yes they are.
Consumption tax = FairTax. Eliminates the IRS AND the 16th Amendment authorizing the income tax. Go to; http://www.fairtax.org for more information!
IRS (AKA) Ignorant Raping Sorry-asses
help stop organized crime. abolish the irs
People are starting to realize that privacy is no longer insured . You can protect all future information from prying eyes with special software that encrypts everything you type. Also protect yourself from hacking. Don’t delay you can be the next victim.
A friend of mine and I use GPG to encrypt emails. It is free open source. Although cumbersome to set up it works seamlessly with Mozilla Thunderbird.
Are you talking about e-mail that’s been opened and DELETED? Or e-mail that’s been opened and saved? Can they read the e-mail that’s been deleted?
Yes, they can read E-mail that has been deleted. Because E-mail is never deleted from your hard drive. What you fail to comprehend is that E-mail has a sender and a receiver. The IRS can read this E-mail from either end of the correspondence. They also have the ability to intercept your e-mail as well. There are about 10 different ways to read your messages.
If you truly wish to prevent this; then you have to do one of three things. 1.) Revert to old school ways. Call the person on a land line or write them a letter. 2.) Talk to the person in person, face to face. 3.) Change the existing laws or create new laws to encompass the new technology and its use verses your privacy and it issues.
Are you nuts? Chipping away our privacy isn’t the American way. I am aware that you are concerned about terrorists e mails but this will also open up the internet for more government spying on private citizens.
Well come to the 21st century. Oh, by the way, you no longer have any privacy. They only privacy you have left is that you are in a group of people so large that you are not interesting. That is to say, you have not been flagged for a closer look. There is ambiguity in masses. This is a form of control the government uses to keep you in line. Don’t make waves and they won’t know who you are.
good I hope they read everything I write and wither away in fear……….cause they are not going tostop me from calling this flat a++ traitor we have in the white house………
GOOD FOR YOU! Many of us will be killed, I’m sure. But if we don’t stand up for the whiny weenies of this country, there will be no one left to stand up for them. What a nation of weenies and cowards!
We were once a People of responsibilities and privileges. Now we have become a people of Rights and Entitlements. Mostly without a leg to stand on, or the Will to stand on it any way.
Mona, remember, the power of the people is in the numbers of people that stand with you. Make sure you know where to find them and reach out to them.
The power of the individual is in their opinion. Make it count; so say it loud and say it proud.
The people you are talking about are called “The Tea Party”, Cliff. Mona should find and join a local/national Tea Party group to join with like-minded patriots!
Does this even surprise you? It took me many years to finally realize that this country lost its way in the late 1800’s and has slowly been sliding into a socialist state, where the rules are for the “workers” and the elites and government don’t follow any rules or only the ones they want.
Welcome to Obama’s world. There’s no easy escape.
The Fourth Amendment prohibits the Federal Gov’t. from this sort of activities !
It’s about time we went back to actually following our Constitution, instead of subverting it !
Oh yeah? Well YOU make them go back to the Constitution. Think you’ll have any luck doing that? Not even the entire nation standing up against the regime will accomplish that.
The checks and balances that the Founders put into place are effective only if Congress has the willingness to use them. A Congress “led” by the wimpy RINOs McConnell and Boehner has been castrated by Big Governmentism, and a mighty shake-up will be needed to change that. Many Members of Congress are up to the task, but more are not. That is where correction is needed.
IRS is way outside the law, has always been:
Are you aware there is no law or statute requiring the filing or paying of federal income taxes?
The Supreme Court has ruled several times that wages are not for taxing! And the Supreme Court has defined “income” to essentially mean “corporate profit”? which means corporations are the only ones who should be paying “income” taxes, not individual wage-earners… !!! And yet, wages of individual earners are taxed – and bullied/threatened/and robbed if they resist paying these unconstitutional fees for the privilege of working in the united States of America … ;o( While corporations pay no taxes, and many receive subsidies of the taxes the wage-earners pay!!!
How to respond to the IRS’s most recent threat to seize my property (i have none for this reason) or rights thereto? The guvmint has already been garnishing 15% of my meager social security payment of $609 a month ($91.35/month taken before the guvmint takes payment for medicare health insurance) …
I have written and asked IRS many times over many years to inform me of the law or statute requiring me to file an IRS income tax form and pay income tax. They have never replied or responded to this request (because there is no law or statute).
Anyone out there have knowledge//suggestions? God will win in the end; we know that. How to keep afloat while waiting for the end … ? Please, alert the patriots of this arm of the bullying machinery ….
Here is where the LAWS for taxes explained. Unfortunately we do have to pay taxes according the US Code 26; passed by Congress and signed into law by the then President.
http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/jsiegel/Personal/taxes/JustNoLaw.htm
Perhaps we should abolish this law and enact a new and fairer law for all to follow, say, that everyone must pay 10% of their income. This includes all cooperation’s and companies. The government must spend money that they take in and can not borrow from Peter to pay Paul. They government can not print more money to cover their debts. Or something along those lines.