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Thursday, September 18, 2008 12:00 AM

What does Sarah Palin have to hide in her Yahoo e-mails?

The same authoritarians who cheered on every last illegal act of the Bush surveillance state today cry over the sanctity of e-mail privacy.

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  • Thursday, September 18, 2008 08:02 AM

    Glenn

    That's like saying that someone who breaks into your house and makes copies of all your private papers and posts them online didn't really do anything wrong becuase you were stupid enough to leave your front-door key under your welcome mat.

    Exactly what law was being broken, though? It's an outrage on privacy, of course, but if the Register is accurate, then law enforcement agencies are not following this up, and I assume there is a reason.

    As I understand it, email hosts take great pains to tell users to never choose passwords or security questions that can be easily guessed. All part of a comprehensive CYA policy, natch, but the implicit attitude is that if someone guesses your password, sucks to be you, you're on your own.

    Breaking into servers is clearly illegal and a serious crime, but that's not what happened here.

    Sorry, I'm not trying to be snotty, some users were just arguing whether there is a criminal case to be made here, and I'm ignorant enough of the law that I'm not sure whether "some guy guesses your doofy password" is a prosecutable crime.

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