Privacy and Contributed by the EDUCAUSE Policy Office

On behalf of several higher education associations, the American Council on Education submitted comments on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

Comments of the EDUCAUSE/Internet2 Computer and Network Security Task Force on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act; Proposed Rule, Federal Register, Vol. 73, No. 57, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development

These slides were presented at the University System of Maryland's Workshop on Data Privacy for Maryland Higher Education.

This opening address was presented at the University System of Maryland's Workshop on Data Privacy for Maryland Higher Education.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held unanimously that the Fourth Amendment applies to e-mail. When it comes to government searches, e-mail is analogous to a sealed envelope. As a result of the case, Warshak v. USA, certain laws allowing warrantless access to e-mail, such as the Stored Communications Act and various provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, are unconstitutional, at least within the jurisdiction of the 6th Circuit Court (Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee). The court pointedly recognized the evolving role of e-mail: "It goes without saying that like the telephone earlier in our history, e-mail is an ever-increasing mode of private communication, and protecting shared communications through this medium is as important to Fourth Amendment principles today as protecting telephone conversations has been in past."