Wiretap Ruling Could Signal End of E-Mail Privacy

While it is likely that some privacy advocates will bemoan this ruling, it is more of a codification of what most tech-savvy people already know - sending e-mails is like sending postcards. They pass through too many hands, and are too easily visible, to be regarded as a private communication.

Most of us benefit from 'privacy through obscurity' because no one is looking for our particular e-mails, and because most people who CAN look at e-mails are either too busy, too ethical, or both to do so.

What does this mean?

Get over it. E-mail was designed in a different time. It is NOT secure.

Pay attention to what you are saying. Say NOTHING in an e-mail that you won't mind having repeated in open court.

Investigate secure collaboration technologies. Both of Ray Ozzie's creations (Lotus Notes and Groove) provide ways to establish secure collaboration networks. There are others.

If you design your business processes and communications appropriately, then you will have little to fear from court decisions such as this, given how far behind technology the courts usually lag.