Amazon exec-style email snooping to be banned

Four members of the US House of Representatives are hoping to prevent a repeat of a recent court decision acquitting a man accused of email interception.

In that case, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Bradford Councilman, a former executive for an online bookseller, did not violate federal wiretap laws by allegedly snooping on email that Amazon.com sent to customers through accounts Councilman provided.

Banning that behaviour is necessary "to modernise America's privacy laws," said Representative Jay Inslee, who is cosponsoring the measure with Roscoe Bartlett, Jeff Flake, and William Delahunt. Their EMail Privacy Act, introduced on Friday, would alter current laws to outlaw that form of email eavesdropping.

Their bill says internet providers could intercept email only "to the extent the access is a necessary incident to the rendition of the service, the protection of the rights or property of the provider of that service" or to honour a government request.

Declan McCullagh writes for CNET News.com