Old laws and new tech

Yahoo is taking on the government over e-mails and probable-cause warrants.

The problem began when prosecutors in Colorado wanted to gain access to a suspect's e-mails for an investigation. The suspect used Yahoo as an e-mail provider, which led to prosecutors issuing an order to Yahoo to show the e-mails.

Under the Stored Communications Act, a prosecutor can access e-mails without a probable-cause warrant as long as the e-mail was over 180 days old.

Yahoo did give prosecutors e-mails that were over 181 days old. But refused to hand over e-mail that had been previously viewed, accessed, or downloaded that was less than 181 days old; which they believed violated their fourth amendment rights. Yahoo is in court against the Department of Justice over the records.

The Stored Communications Act was created in 1986, a time where e-mails were stored on the clients computers. Today's e-mail providers store their client's e-mails on servers that could be on there for years.

Yahoo is backed by tech giants like Google and Microsoft, who are looking for an update to the law.

Yahoo's fight with the Department of Justice is a demonstration of what happens when the laws don't get updated with the technology, and it may be time for congress to go through their technology laws and see what still works and what needs to be updated.