Yahoo Email Safe from Warrantless Search

Posted 04/16/2010 at 4:48pm | by Ryan Whitwam

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The US Department of justice has dropped its case attempting to force Yahoo to hand over private email without a warrant. The DOJ files a two page brief with the court canceling its request for access to Yahoo subscribers' email. The action taken by the DOJ ruffled a lot of feathers including the EFF and Google, who filed their displeasure with the court just recently.

The nature of the crimes being investigated was never disclosed, and that likely had something to do with the governments eventual decision to pull out. Though, the media attention in the last week probably helped as well. The EFF is claiming that the Justice Department dropped the case mainly because they did not want to fight the civil liberties group in court.

Yahoo isn't offering much background, but seems positive saying, "We are pleased with the decision and we continue to be committed to protecting the privacy of users." This decision does not rule out the possibility the government could make another attempt to access email without a warrant in the future, but these accounts are likely safe. How does this make you feel about the privacy of email?