October 30, 2009
Argument by analogy
A judge has ruled that email is not protected under the Fourth Amendment. This sounds wrong to me (although I am very much not a lawyer), but what I really enjoy are the many many arguments by analogy as slashdotters try to figure out what email is like, so we can see what privacy expectations to port over from the familiar world of telephones, Fedex trucks, and glass-bottom boats.
I’m not saying there’s a better way to figure this out. I just enjoy watching us flounder our way through ethical dilemmas.
