Keystone Cops Subpoena Google For Facebook’s Data

Email privacy is a tangled subject: the Electronic Communication Privacy Act (ECPA) governing when the police or FBI can read your messages was written in 1986, the Justice Department is loathe to release details on how often it is used, and the underlying technology is always changing.

But at a panel in Washington on Tuesday, Google’s chief privacy lawyer did drop a depressing and revealing factoid about how law enforcement is actually using its subpoena and warrant powers to get information on who you message and what you send.