A federal judge has upheld a ruling that Federal Agents do not need a warrant to search someone’s computer to see if e-mail addresses and websites are connected to a crime.
This stems from a drug case that prosecutors argued a computer surveillance was like a device that records phone numbers dialed by a suspect on a phone tap. These “pen registers” were upheld in a 1979 Supreme Court case that allowed agents to listen to phone calls because callers would be using phone companies to make calls.
A pen register does require approval, but since it’s not considered a search there is no need for a search warrant. A search warrant requires an agent(s) to prove that a search will bring back evidence of a crime.
In the Friday ruling the judge ruled that since suspects were using public companies to carry the messages and going to web sites that it was the same as a pen register.
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