…you can pretty much give up on having any privacy in the United States. In fact, you can pretty much toss out the Fourth Amendment while you’re at it.
If this shit doesn’t give you chills, nothing will.
First Obama signs the NDAA into law giving the military the power to arrest American citizens without charges, or due process of law, and now the Senate is looking to add to that fiasco by allowing law enforcement to read your email, access your internet accounts and social media without a warrant, without any judicial oversight, and without your knowledge.
America has lost its way.
Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants
by Declan McCullagh
Proposed law scheduled for a vote next week originally increased Americans’ e-mail privacy. Then law enforcement complained. Now it increases government access to e-mail and other digital files.
A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans’ e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.
CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans’ e-mail, is scheduled for next week.
Leahy’s rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans’ e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.
It’s an abrupt departure from Leahy’s earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The Vermont Democrat boasted last year that his bill “provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by… requiring that the government obtain a search warrant.”
Truth, Lies and In Between 
Reblogged this on News You May Have Missed and commented:
Privacy? What Privacy?
U.S. Senate bill Rewritten So Cops / Feds Can Read Your Email Without Warrants,
Most Americans have not considered if Sen. Leahy’s Internet Access bill is passed, the Feds and Cops can use warrant-less searches of their sent and received emails to charge Citizens with crime. Until now in America, no warrant) searches of email was something talked about happening in oppressive regimes like Iran. It is problematic see (COINTELPRO) History that U.S. Government, federal agencies and police without probable cause or warrants will search the email, social media sites, private docs and other communications of activists; Americans and corporations that politically disagree with U.S. Government—in hopes of finding evidence of wrongdoing.
After Sen. Leahy’s Internet Access bill is passed, what do you do if you get an email that erroneously appears to include you as a participant in a crime or conspiracy that U.S. Federal Agencies and cops can use in court (without a warrant) against you or your business?
U.S. Police and federal agencies can take out of context any innocent—hastily written email, fax or phone call record to allege a crime or violation was committed to cause a person’s arrest, fines and or civil asset forfeiture of their property. There are more than 400 laws/violations that can subject property to Government asset forfeiture that require only a civil preponderance of evidence, little more than hearsay.
Sen. Patrick Leahy’s has reworked his privacy bill H.R. 2471 touted to protect Americans’ e-mail privacy (into a warrant-less Internet access bill) that will allow the FBI, police and more than 22 federal agencies without probable cause to access your private email and other Internet communications using only a mere subpoena. Alleged seized evidence without warrants may be introduced in U.S. Civil, Criminal and Administrative prosecutions and under (NDAA) The National Defense Authorization ACT and Patriot Act.
After Sen. Patrick Leahy’s warrant-less Internet Access bill is passed, Americans should expect a spike in arrests and property forfeitures by the feds and local police. Many Police departments are now in a budget crisis. Faced with having to layoff police officers, police increasingly look to civil asset forfeiture of Citizens’ property to pay their salaries and operating costs. This is a conflict of interests.
The passed “Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000” (effectively eliminated) the “five year statue of limitations” for Government Civil Asset Forfeiture: the statute now runs five years (from the date) government or a police agency allege they “learned” an asset became subject to forfeiture. Should the Senate pass Patrick Leahy’s (no warrant) government Internet Access bill, police will relentlessly sift through business and Citizens’ (government retained Internet data), emails and phone communications to discover crimes and civil violations.
Annually U.S. Government seizes billions in assets without filing criminal charges. Increasingly local police turn their criminal investigations over to Federal Agencies to receive an 80% rebate of forfeited assets. Federal Government is not required to charge someone with a crime to forfeit property.
A vote on Sen. Patrick Leahy’s warrant-less access bill is scheduled before November 30, 2012.
Can Canadians Hold Out Against Their Government’s Recent Forceful Efforts to Wiretap Their Lives?
Is it coincidence it was recently reported the Canadian Government intends to resurrect (Commons Bill C-30) that Canadians earlier this year rejected? Canadians discovered that (Commons Bill C-30) touted to protect children on the Internet—would also give any Canadian police officer—without a warrant—the power to request Internet service providers turn over customers’ information (see section 17 of C-30); allow Canadian police to seek into Canadians’ private computers. C-30 was strongly opposed by Canadians in April 2012. Canadians further discovered Canada had signed with the United States an array of (Asset Forfeiture Sharing Agreements) for Canada to share Canadian and Americans’ assets civilly or criminally confiscated using Asset Forfeiture laws that result from U.S. and Canada sharing information gleaned from electronic surveillance of Canadian / American Citizens’ communications, e.g., emails, faxes, Internet actively, phone records.
You may learn more about Sen. Patrick Leahy’s reworked privacy bill H.R. 2471 at CNET:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57552225-38/senate-bill-rewrite-lets-feds-read-your-e-mail-without-warrants/?tag=nl.e703&s_cid=e703
Thanks for the extensive comment on this. Good info.
Our rights are slowly dwindling under more and more repressive legislation that Americans will regret when they finally realize just how much they’ve lost.