US Judge Grants Investigators Access to Gmail Accounts in Criminal Probes
A New York federal judge ruled on Friday that prosecutors have a legal right to access Gmail-based emails in criminal probes that involve money laundering, a sharp turnaround from previous rulings in comparable cases and an alarm bell for privacy advocates. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein said that his decision was based on a law already on the books that allows investigators to seize documentswhich Gorenstein interpreted as including emailsto determine whether data should be subject to a warrant, Reuters reports. The big question is what happens if a user's email account doesn't yield any information that would justify a legal warrant, and how much public support lies behind the idea of privileging high profile investigations over personal privacy. Reuters